Lost and Found
by xXCelestialDarkness666Xx
Summary: It started out with slaying blood pigs in video games. Then an unexpected visit, followed by an accidental, very personal discovery. She felt haunted by it. Nothing would ever be the same...ZAGF/ZAGR?
1. Secrets

_Note: I'm trying my hand at a ZAGF/ZAGRish fic. Though I ship Pepito/Gaz like crazy, I happen to like this ship too. _

_ Gaz is 16 years old in this fic, whilst Dib and Zim are 17 years old. Everyone's older. Blah blah._

~Sammi

* * *

Gaz Membrane sat in the crook of the comfy sofa in her living room, pouring every ounce of focus and determination into her latest version of her Gameslave, and the latest and greatest video game to go with it; Vampire Piggy Hunter. The goth's focus intensified as she tried her best to ignore the ongoing ruckus in the room...Dib and Zim arguing about something stupid, of course. It was just a typical argument. Unless it was a _real,_ legitimate threat Zim was bringing upon Earth, she could care less. All she heard between dying blood pigs was Dib and Zim ranting and raving about something that was "stolen" or lost at school. _No big deal..._

She tried her best to tune them both out so she could beat the final level of her new game. Sweet victory was only moments away from her...

"ZIM, I _DIDN'T_ TAKE IT!" Dib loudly insisted, growing agitated by Zim's accusation.

"IF YOU DIDN'T STEAL IT THEN SURELY THE SCARY DEMON SISTER HAS IT!" Zim blurted out, pointing to said scary sister in her own little world.

"WHY ON EARTH WOULD GAZ WANT THAT?!" Dib asked rhetorically.

"BECAUSE _DIB-STINK_, SHE _WISHES_ SOMETHING THAT BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZINGLY CRAFTED WAS IN HER POSSESSION!" Zim yelled back, in a strained attempt in finding his lost item.

"THAT'S JUST _STUPID_, EVEN FOR YOU! Unless it's a video game or a Bloaty's gift card, she doesn't have it!" Dib shouted back, stepping protectively in front of Gaz in case Zim was dumb enough to make a move.

"THEN THAT LEADS ME BACK TO YOOOOUUUUU! I'VE ALREADY RIPPED APART THE REST OF THE TOWN AND HAVE YET TO FIND IT! YOU HAVE IT!" The Irken shrieked, pointing his finger directly in Dib's face, even flicking his glasses.

"OF ALL THE THINGS I COULD HAVE STOLEN FROM YOU, WHY WOULD I TAKE SUCH A DUMB PIECE OF JUNK?! I would _obviously_ go for something that could give me irrefutable proof and expose you for the alien menace you _really_ are! Like a _weapon_, for example! Not something that the rest of my people would pass off as just another dumb fashion statement!" Dib shouted at the Irken, who was finally head towards the door after at least an hour of arguing.

Zim spun around, almost glaring daggers at the fact his arch nemesis insulted the object that he considered valuable. His hands curled into fists, and he looked as furious as anyone's ever seen him. "IT'S NOT JUST SOME _USELESS_ TRINKET!" He quickly spat out like venom. "IT'S MUCH MORE VALUABLE THAN YOUR _SIMPLE_ HUMAN MIND CAN EVEN FATHOM!" He lashed out in a sudden rage, and over a rather unusual situation of seemingly minimal importance. Zim shook his head. No one would get it. How could anyone from _here_ possibly understand? Why would they even care? Nobody did...He felt a mixture of turbulent emotions rush him, over which he had no control; Anger, primarily. Dissatisfaction. Sadness. Regret. They were all boiling to the surface. Not wanting to talk to Dib or anyone any longer, he slammed the door to the Membrane household shut, taking off into the night.

Dib stood there, feeling rather dumbfounded. Sure, Zim was notorious for strange outbursts over the years, but he never once saw him...like _that._ He looked so frustrated, even stressed. It was indeed different from anything he's ever witnessed. Zim was always so arrogant...but now he just seemed..._desperate_...desperate to find the lost item. This was weird, even for Zim. The paranormal investigator knew in the pit of his stomach that there was something more...to whatever this is.

"_Geez._ Have you ever seen him like that before, Gaz? He sure was acting strange..." Dib felt the need to point out.

At this point, she was only paying attention somewhat. "I don't know. He's _Zim_. He's always acting weird." She assured her brother as if the Irken's erratic behavior was normal.

"You didn't happen to see it anywhere, _did you?"_ Dib asked out of curiosity.

Gaz's video game sounded a victorious note, indicating to her brother her game just ended. "Huh?" She asked in confusion, finally looking up from the game.

"If you find it, just give it to me so I can give it back to Zim. I don't need him breaking into the house looking for it again." Dib told her.

"Fine. Whatever." She responded. She wasn't even remotely interested in what it was, and she missed most of the conversation. She had no intentions of learning about whatever it was. Hell, if Dib wasn't even interested in it, why should _she_ be? Chances are it was probably something dumb or irrelevant anyways.

"He just keeps _insisting_ that I stole it! What a _lizard._ Why would he think that I even have it? Sure, I keep tabs on him at all times, but that doesn't seem too important." Dib mentioned to her. "It's like he's getting crazier everyday, Gaz."

"Eh...He's Zim. When _isn't_ he being crazy?" She reasoned, passing the ordeal off as normal she closed her Gameslave.

"True...Well, I'm gonna brush my teeth and then head to bed." Dib said with a yawn. "You should get some rest too. You're always up late since you got your new games."

"Okay, _Dad_. And I just beat my last one." She said with a yawn as well, feeling a little exhausted. "I still need to find one more version of Vampire Piggy Hunter D. I couldn't find it _anywhere. I NEED IT..._"

"_Obsessed much?"_ He joked.

Gaz just scoffed. "You ought to talk. What time does Zim get his newspaper on a Thursday again?" She asked.

Dib sighed. "3:12 in the afternoon." He answered, almost shamefully.

Gaz just laughed. "_Point proven_." She retorted.

"I only know that because Thursday is the only day when he conducts his weird laser experiments! It's like he's sending signals out into space for all of his alien buddies to come find us and take over or something! I want to know what he's up to!" Dib said defensively.

"Well, get me if it's actually something _important._" She told him as she stretched, getting up off of the couch. "Otherwise, _I don't care."_

"I think he's sending pictures or symbols...maybe a message in his own language..." He theorized aloud, pacing back and forth as he pondered the mystery of it all.

Gaz just groaned in annoyance. Again, unless Zim was about to unleash an actual threat upon them, she didn't need to hear about the alien 24/7. The alien was too arrogant and self absorbed to make most plans work. Not to mention Zim just didn't give a damn about _anybody_ but himself. Why should she care if he _was_ talking to his so called space buddies? He seemed incapable of actually being friends with anyone...she should know...She wasn't one to have any friends either...

"Anyways, Gaz, I'm going to bed soon." Dib finally said, finishing up some rant which she naturally tuned the rest out.

"Yeah. Okay. Goodnight, dweeb." She answered, taking her game out of the console and inspecting it.

"Don't forget to turn the security system on...And goodnight, Gaz." He answered, disappearing just around the corner.

"Yeah..." She faintly answered, looking in the direction of their father's home made security system mounted on the wall. As the dark girl started to walk over toward it, she dropped her precious video game...

"_Crap!_" She complained as she saw it roll under the couch. She immediately got down on her knees to retrieve it, praying to the video game gods that it wasn't broken. She blindly reached her hand under the couch, feeling for the disc...nothing so far...just a couple dust bunnies...and then..._something else?_

She felt the small cold metal object in her hand. She quickly pulled it out from underneath the couch, staring at it briefly as she held it up to her face. It looked like a small, purple piece of metal in the shape of a _bean? _She turned it around, revealing the other side to be a metal of crimson in color. She noted it had hinges on its side, plus foreign symbols etched onto the front of it...like _a locket?_

_Zim's_..._That must be the thing which he was driving everyone crazy about._ _How did it end up here, under the couch?_ She thought to herself. She placed it to the side while she reached under the couch again, and finally pulled out her video game. However, she found herself drawn back to the mysterious object. A simple, but _alien_ piece of jewelry. She looked around to see if Dib was anywhere in sight...Finding her curiosity surprisingly getting the better of her, she found the tiny latch to open the little bean shaped object. She debated for a second to decide if she truly wanted to see what Zim was hiding in a piece of jewelry. On one hand, she thought it was none of her business; she would hate it if someone went through a personal item of hers...on the other hand...she really wanted to see for herself what Zim of all people could consider of the utmost importance.

She carefully opened the boxy metal piece...only to find a picture of a rather proud looking Zim on one side...which seemed typical...that and another photo of _a girl?_

"_Wow._" She muttered to herself in contemplation as she stared at the girl...A weird, uneasy feeling came across Gaz as she inspected the image of the unknown alien girl. It almost sent a chill up her spine as she looked the picture of the Irken female over.

She had unusual curled antennae, which stayed almost flat to her head. They were shaped into two upside down scythe like points that seemed to frame her face perfectly. She had reddish purple orbs for eyes, which seemed intense even though they were half open at best, contrasting her light green skin. Her wicked looking eyes were defined by thick, black sharp pointed eyelashes. She wore a very dark colored purple shirt, with charcoal colored black striped sleeves. The unknown female's demeanor seemed threatening, as she wore a deadly serious look on her face... And yet Zim seemed to cherish this particularly _horrifying_ photo of this girl.

An eerie feeling sprang into the pit of Gaz's stomach, as she kept analyzing the photo. She couldn't take her squinted eyes off of the Irken female. Was she... Zim's..._girlfriend?_ The thought of Zim having a relationship with anyone was kinda _weird_, and for some reason she couldn't quite explain, it kind of _bothered_ her. She knew she stumbled across something deeply personal of Zim's; something he never shared with anyone; something he was apparently ripping apart the town to search for.

"_Damn it._" A reluctant Gaz muttered to herself in some form of annoyance, as she knew what needed to be done...

She was going to ignore Dib's order. The locket wasn't a threat; it wasn't a weapon or anything to doom anyone. It was something that was deeply valuable to Zim in another way.

Gaz sighed as she closed it up and slipped the "bean" that she found into her black dress pocket; she was going to _return it_ to its rightful owner. She grabbed a black jacket, along with a baseball bat in case ANYONE would be stupid enough to give her any trouble. She set the security system, and quickly headed out the door into the pitch black night with a destination and plan in mind; she was going to quickly drop it off at Zim's house and leave...

* * *

_~Gaz should have paid a little more attention during Zim and Dib's rants._

_Zim has a secret...and it lies in the bean shaped locket._


	2. I've Got A Squeedily Spooch

_I just wanna say thanks for all the positive support I've received. :) I truly appreciate those who take time out of their day to read my crazy stories. With that said, I can't guarantee it will be great or anything. It's my first ZAGF/ZAGR I'm doing, and it's going to have a strange story line__. Also,__ while I love science and scifi to death, this fic is also going to have some supernatural elements to it as well as a mystery quality, however, I'll try to ensure it's not devoid of any form of humor._

_Invader Johnny: We're going to see a whole other side of Zim due to the circumstance._

_Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Thank you! Though I can't make any promises, I'll try my best to make it interesting. The locket certainly surprised Gaz. She did feel some hidden jealousy over this girl. That and it bothered her for another reason..._

Erin Tesden: Thank you! If you're right, be prepared because this is going to be quite...unusual, but nonetheless interesting.

_Thanks again guys! I'll stop blabbing so we can get on with this fic already!_

_~Sammi XD_

* * *

Gaz trudged down the street, tightly gripping her baseball bat in one hand while holding up her phone as a source of light as she headed down the sidewalk leading to Zim's house. The wind was terrible tonight; she could hardly see as the howling winds continued to blow her hair in her face. She kept struggling against the force of nature, growing even more angry and determined as the winds became even stronger.

"_Ugh!_" She grunted, squinting her eyes as she walked against the strong gusts. Of all the nights she finally decided to leave the house, it just _had_ to be on the night with hurricane like weather that fought her every step of the way! _Why am I doing this again?_ She mentally asked herself in a half complaint... _To get stupid Zim off my back. Yeah. That's right. _She lied to herself. Because deep in her mind, she had her reasons...A really big one being that she actually felt bad for him for a change. If it was something personal of hers, or someone important to her, she'd want it back too...Wow...Was she going..._soft?_

She walked faster than she thought, as she was already at the glowing green house, standing on the doorstep. She got the locket out of her pocket. She made it past the stupid lawn gnomes, now all that was left to do was drop the "bean" off and-

"AAAAAAHHHH! HI SCARY LADY!" A shrill voice suddenly greeted her as the door creaked open, actually managing to startle her a bit. There was Gir without his dog disguise, grinning with childish delight.

Gaz just smacked her head in annoyance. _"Shh!"_ She harshly sounded.

"WHAAAAA?" The robot asked as he flung the door open, revealing a preoccupied Zim flipping over his couch and throwing some clutter to the side as he started to tear apart the cushions with his gloved hands like a mad man.

Zim started to scream as he inspected the couch's stuffing, not paying attention at the moment. "GIR, GET OVER HERE! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M UPSET AND-" He stopped mid sentence, freezing in place as he noticed he had an unwarranted guest at his doorstep with a baseball bat in tow. But that wasn't all. He was quick to eye something else that the scariest Membrane held in her _filthy_ human hand...

Zim's eye began to twitch, as his face began to contort and he was filled with wild anger. _And Gaz noticed._ Within an instant, Zim appeared right in front of her. Gaz's eyes popped open in surprise, especially the proximity of his face which was now an inch away from her own, his red orbs now glaring directly into her eyes. He snatched the locket out of her hands in the blink of an eye. In a nanosecond, metal coils shot out of his Pak, wrapping around her so she couldn't move. Zim was eerily silent as he carefully watched the scary human girl that he had in his clutches.

"HEY!" Gaz yelled in a threatening tone.

Gaz stood her ground warily against him, not knowing if he was going to treat her like a threat. He had a look unlike any she had seen before; it just about rivaled her own death stare. She realized in a split second that her brother was actually right; there was something strange about the normally arrogant Irken. He wasn't his usual goofy self. He brought her inside of his abode, using a free coil to shut the door. Gaz grunted as she struggled against his grip. While she was strong, even _she_ couldn't break through metal. Her dark, mysterious aura glowed, flashing a few times like a warning sign in front of the Irken. And while this normally would have sent Zim running away in fear for his life, this time... it _didn't._

"Master! Can scary lady make us biscuits?!" Gir innocently asked.

Zim just looked down at his deranged robot. "No, Gir. Go down and check on hideous experiments 12 and 42." He ordered in a stern voice, holding Gaz in midair.

"But I don't wanna!" Gir cried like a child.

"_Gir_...Grab some pudding out of the fridge and go downstairs to the lower level. NOW." He ordered once again, trying to really get him to leave the room.

"YAY! PUDDING!" Gir screamed as he ran towards the kitchen in a zig zag motion. Both Zim and Gaz watched the little bot exit. Zim snapped his attention right back to Gaz, who quickly kicked him in the legs, side swiping him.

_"UGH!_" Zim groaned as he fell to the floor in pain, his metal coils still wrapped around Gaz who fell down alongside of him.

She tried to get away from him, except the Irken soldier quickly got back on his feet, and pulled her up off of the ground, and close to his face once more.

The captive goth just glared at him, feeling her rage take over. "_Let me go_-"

"_WHERE_ did you get this?!" He cut her off, angrily demanding to know how she acquired the treasured item he held in his hand. He watched her carefully as she stared a hole through him.

"I found it under my couch, you _idiot!"_ Gaz snapped back.

"I KNEW IT! _YOU_ STOLE IT!" He shouted in an accusing manner like a lunatic. _She's really crossing a line, stealing this from me_... He thought to himself as he grew angrier.

"_NO, I DIDN'T!_" She shouted back. _This is what I get for trying to do the 'right thing'._ She mentally complained to herself.

"MAYBE YOU WERE JUST JEALOUS BECAUSE IT LOOKS _BEAUTIFUL!_ YOU _WISHED_ YOU HAD A SUPERIOR FORM OF JEWELRY TO CALL YOUR OWN INSTEAD OF THAT...THAT _CHEAP LOOKING_ SKULL DRAPED AROUND YOUR NECK!" Zim practically screamed in her face, angering her further.

"_My skull necklace._.._IS COOL_." She angrily said through gritted teeth. "And yeah, that's just what I always wanted; It literally looks like a freaking BEAN!" She fired back at him, trying to make a point.

Zim fell silent for a moment, a brief second of vulnerability showed on his face, which he detested. "HA! I laugh at your _simple_, _inferior_ human mind!" He laughed it off, hiding the obvious hurt that appeared in his eyes at the moment. "_A bean!" _He said mockingly in a high voice as he tapped her on the head. "It's OBVIOUSLY a _Squeedily Spooch!"_ He corrected her, as his eyes started to water a bit, and he looked like he was in pain.

Gaz noticed the foreign emotion appear in the Irken's ruby eyes. She raised an eyebrow, and didn't know what to say. Zim turned his face away from her own, holding back the tears.

Zim sighed. "Why does everyone want to _hurt_ Zim?" He muttered under his breath, rubbing the corner of his eye with his black glove.

_"What?"_ Gaz asked in disbelief as she narrowed her eyes. She heard him. Mostly because even at his quietest he was still loud. She just couldn't understand why he said _that._

"I suppose you've already peered _inside_ of it. If you did, that was very _LOWLY_ of you to steal it from me. Hide it from me for _over a week!_ I've scoured every inch of this _filthy_ town looking for it...That was just _cruel,_ even for _you." _He bitterly told her as he finally came face to face with her.

At this, Gaz was nearly speechless. "Zim, I didn't _take_ it! I've been holed up in my room playing video games all week! I FOUND IT UNDER MY COUCH!" She told him once more, trying to get through to him, looking directly in his eyes.

The alien paused for a moment, as his eyes widened. He then just resumed his rant. "THEN YOUR STUPID BROTHER MUST HAVE STOLEN IT!"

"NO. Dib didn't even-"

"I KNEW THAT DIRTY MONKEY WAS BEHIND ALL OF THIS! IT HAS HIS STINK WRITTEN ALL OVER IT! HE SENT _YOU_ OVER HERE WITH _MY_ MOST BELOVED POSSESSION TO DISTRACT ME, ALL IN AN ATTEMPT TO TRY TO SABOTAGE MY BASE, _DIDN'T HE?!" _He screamed in her face once more, as he was now becoming filled with paranoia.

Gaz just shook her head, getting fed up with him. "_NO_. My dumb brother didn't steal it! He didn't even know it was under the couch! He's sleeping right now! I know you have cameras pointed at my house. Check _them_ if you don't believe me." She told him.

Zim stared at her, dumbfounded for a moment. "How do you know about the cameras?" He asked out of curiosity, scratching his chin.

"Because _I know you_, Zim. Six years on the planet and you'd think I'd never notice your little spy cameras pointed outside of my house towards Dib's room?" She felt the need to point out. He checked his surveillance cameras...Dib-stink was sound asleep...the demon sibling wasn't lying.

"Oh...Why didn't you remove them if you knew about them?" He asked out of curiosity.

"Because _I don't care_." She flatly told him with her usual attitude.

"Then how did my locket end up in your _horrible_ abode under your _filthy_ sofa?" He still demanded to know.

"I don't know! Maybe you lost it when you kept stopping by the house to fight with my brother!" She explained to him. If she had a free hand, she would have smacked her head until she was unconscious.

"Hmm...The chain _did_ break...It's a possibility, I suppose." He finally considered, almost rationally.

"_More like an answer._" She dryly commented.

"Then that leads me to another question; Why are you _really_ here?" He asked her, inspecting her face for an answer.

"The only reason I came over here was to _give it back_ to you. It's not mine. I don't want it. But it's obviously something personal of yours. If it was something valuable to me, I'd want it back. That's why I was just gonna drop it off." She rationalized to the insane alien.

Zim seemed to wince at this, staring down at the locket he held in his gloved hand. He bit his lip, and the tears in his ruby eyes started to resurface as he fought to hold them back. While he was glad he got his cherished locket back, it was really bittersweet for him.

"You want a reward, _don't you?_" He inquired, trying to change the subject as he avoided eye contact with her and looked at his wallet. "Monies? Video games? Is that it?"

"_No_. Just let me go." She told him. She wasn't good at dealing with emotional situations, though she found herself actually feeling bad for him. It was kinda hard to watch. She didn't really know what to say to him, but she could tell that he was hurting.

Zim complied with her request, and retracted the tentacle like coils back into his Pak. "Eh...I suppose a thank you is in order." He said in a strained voice, looking away from her. He felt truly grateful that she returned it to him; he just didn't want this particular scary human to see him at a weak point. "Th-_Thank you_ for your service to Zim, Gaz-human."

"Yeah, don't mention it." She told him as she was about to leave. She still felt angry that he captured her. She normally wins every time. She hated that he caught her off guard; she normally would have beat him up by now for holding her like that and for screaming at her. However, she knew he was hurting, and she didn't want to kick him while he was down. She stopped in her tracks and turned around for one last comment. "By the way, using metal coils is_ cheating." _She let him know as she started out the door, as her way of letting him know he wouldn't have overpowered her without the help of technology.

Zim let out a gasp as he stared at her with a look of both horror and surprise. His eyes widened, and he tilted his head, staring at her in a bizarre manner, not saying a word.

And the goth girl noticed his dead silence. She turned back around to face him. "What? It's just a point that-"

But it was too late. For whatever reason, that simple retort she uttered triggered something for Zim that she was unaware of. She noticed his lip started to quiver as he stared at the now open locket. Tears started streaming down his face before he could fight them off, and he began to choke out a sob.

Zim turned away from her and tugged on his antennae, as he remembered that exact phrase being spoken by..._her. _It _haunted_ him.

At this, Gaz felt helpless. She stood there, frozen, not knowing what to say or do. What was she supposed to do? Her words just made it worse, and she wasn't even trying. She just witnessed the most arrogant, seemingly unlovable, unloving alien fall to the ground and start sobbing in front of her. He wasn't a friend; he was her brother's worst enemy...She actually felt for him...it was as if she could feel his pain...She felt bad for him, so she started off with an apology. _"I'm sorry..."_ She uttered, as she wasn't one to hand out apologies to just anyone. She is _Gaz_ after all.

He wiped some tears from his eyes with his gloves, as they splattered all over the locket he held. "I don't need your _pity._ Not from a _filthy_ human." He complained, wanting her to just leave. He felt embarrassed that she saw him like this.

His remark kind of pissed Gaz off. She was about to stomp out the door, but some nagging feeling was drawing her back. She sighed as she leaned over Zim. "I really am _sorry_..." She really hated opening up to other people. It made her vulnerable for their attack and nasty comments...

"_I don't need your pity!_" He stubbornly choked out between sobs, feeling embarrassed that a human, especially the scariest one on the planet had caught him crying.

"I don't _pity_ you. I just think I might understand." She told the alien. "Who _was_ she?" Gaz boldly asked him.

Zim froze for a moment, before looking up at her. He already knew she saw the photo of her in the locket. He sniffled, trying to compose himself. "She was one of the Irken Elite. She was the most _amazing,_ most _fearless_ soldier I had ever seen. She was my _love pig_; _My life partner;_ My beloved; or as you humans would say; my _girl_-friend." He informed her as he stared at her photo, smiling at her proudly.

Gaz, growing interested, knelt down aside of him as she stared at the photo of the pretty alien he held. "Oh..."

For the first time in years, Zim reluctantly decided to open up to someone about her...at least somewhat. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this, human...Her name was _Azel._.. _Invader Azel_...For someone who was incapable of loving anyone, I fell in deeply, _madly_ love with her. The locket...it's a Squeedily Spooch shape...or it's supposed to be. It can signify love on my planet, similar to how your _disturbing_ culture uses those _disgusting_ little butt shapes." He told her, trying to focus on his fondest memories with the girl.

Gaz shook her head. "They aren't...'_butt shapes'_. They're _hearts_." She corrected.

"Huh? Human hearts don't look like that. _I would know_; I've stolen them from unsuspecting filthy humans before." Zim reminded her about the twisted event, still wiping some tears from his face.

"Yeah. I know...It's just a stupid Earth thing I guess." She responded, actually smiling a tad bit from his ignorance of Earth knowledge...and the fact that he literally ripped hearts out of a few human idiots.

Zim sighed sadly. Gaz could tell from the way he was speaking of her, and about how he ripped apart the town in search of the locket, that the two of them didn't just break up...

Some more tears welled up in his eyes. "I've _lost_ her..._That locket_...is one of the few possessions I have left to remember her by. I loved her SO MUCH! I _still_ do!" He told her, starting to sob a little again.

"When...did it happen?" She quietly asked. She was unsure of what exactly to do in these situations without pressing, but she was genuinely interested at the same time.

"Just under two of your _filthy_ Earth decades ago." Zim replied, sniffling.

"About 20 years ago?...How old _are_ you Zim?" She asked out of curiosity.

"I am 167 years old...though it equals approximately 17 of your Earth years...She would have been 165 years old..." He answered.

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?" The dark girl dared to inquire.

"Her _last_ mission...She went off by herself, like usual. Sometime later I received a distress signal that her ship crashed, but it was without location...I _tried_ to leave... It took my time...I-I searched for YEARS! Every stinking backwater planet I could think of! I searched her last location! I've SEARCHED EVERYWHERE! I TURNED ENTIRE _WORLDS_ UPSIDE DOWN! And I STILL couldn't find her! I had hope that she was alive for the first few years...but after all this time...I've come to accept that she's g-gone. And...I _miss_ her...Today...it would have equated to the day we first met...our anniversary." Zim finished, bursting into another fit of loud sobs.

Gaz's eyes widened, and oddly enough, a foreign feeling had overcome her. Watching one of the strongest people she knew break down after losing someone...well, it moved the normally unemotional girl. She could even feel her own eyes water up, somehow being able to empathize with his loss. All these years...and he never had closure about her death. It was sad. However, she refused to cry... "I'm sorry..."

Zim was sobbing so loud, he couldn't hear her, or pay attention at the moment. She decided to just try and pat him on the back, causing Zim to flinch in fear at first. "I'm sorry, Zim. _I really am_." She said once again. She knew what it was like to lose someone important. Unlike Zim though, at least she had her brother to help her through it. Zim on the other hand, seemed to have no one. She felt wrong to think he didn't care about anybody; he clearly cared about this girl more than anything in the universe. Gaz just wanted him to feel better; to let him know that someone actually listened to his story and gave a damn... She didn't really know what else to do to console him. She very awkwardly got closer to him, extending her arms as and narrowing her eyes as she did the unthinkable...she reluctantly gave him a hug.

Zim just froze when it happened...he couldn't recall a time Gaz went around giving out free hugs to anyone...And it was _awkward_. She hugged him as if he were a cactus! He wanted to shove her away from himself; she was a filthy human that had the nerve to touch him...but at the same time...she was the only other being that could comprehend and care about his situation. Out of all of his people on Irk that knew of it, it turned out to be the most hostile, closed off human on the planet that actually showed him empathy. He kicked himself mentally for taking some form of comfort in her, as he slowly, very awkwardly, wrapped his arms around her, bringing her closer to himself...

Some of his tears even spilled on her, but she didn't mind. The two held each other for a moment or two, without speaking. It became less awkward once the two of them were hugging, though it was still an _unusual_, maybe even _rare_ situation.

"I know what's it's like to lose someone important..." Gaz finally began.

"_You_ lost a partner?" Zim asked in surprise, sniffling. "I don't recall seeing you with any _filthy_ human male."

"_No_. I lost my Mom." The dark girl told him.

Zim's antennae perked up, as he realized of all the times he was around the Membrane family, he couldn't recall seeing a mother. "You had a mother?" He asked, almost in disbelief. "How did it happen?"

"It was an accident; a _horrible_ lab accident...it was _years_ ago. Me and Dib were just little kids. She was the most important person to me...She was _strong._.." Gaz told him, preferring not to elaborate much more if she didn't have to.

Zim listened attentively to what she had opened up to him about, though something bothered him. She was in more control of her emotions than he was, even though they both had devastating losses. "I am sorry for your loss...How did you..._cope_ with it?" He asked, curiously as he sniffled.

"I just HAD to. It was either accept the fact that she was gone or go insane over something I couldn't fix. Feeling horrible everyday wasn't helping..._I had to let her go..._Not to sound like Dib or anything, but I'd like to think she's at peace in the afterlife...that's how I'm able to go on and live my life. I'd like to think she would want me and Dib to be happy." Gaz answered, as best as she could, as she had reasoned this years ago by herself.

For some reason, Zim thought of the skulls and skull clothing Gaz had always worn..._is this part of the reason why she has a morbid fascination with death? Because it soothes her in some twisted way?_ He thought to himself. _Also explains why the Dib is always so obsessed with searching for evidence of the afterlife...Hmm...Afterlife...?_

"So you believe that your mother and my Azel both live on...as just pure energy as _ghosts_ on some ghostly realm of existence?" Zim asked in sincerity. After all, even though Gaz was human...he had to admit, she was very _clever._

"Yeah. Why not? Energy can't die." Gaz explained.

"Your mother could very well be a ghost...but _Azel._..she's _Irken_. She had a _Pak_. It's different for us. When our physical bodies die-" Zim stopped himself as some more tears streamed down his face.

"Calm down, Zim." She said in a soothing voice.

"When we Irkens _die._..our personalities live on through our Paks. You'll get a new body sooner or later if you're deemed _worthy_ to be remembered...like if you accomplish something great in your life time or something...your Pak gets placed on the new body and bam! You're _you_ again. The trouble is I've never recovered Azel's Pak...and neither did the rest of the Irken Armada. If her Pak is damaged...she's probably gone..._permanently." _The Irken stated in a gruff voice. He felt like he could throw up when he said it.

Gaz listened to him with interest...Worthy to be remembered? _No wonder he's so obsessed with trying to conquer the planet...trying to achieve...even bragging about himself all the time..._She thought to herself. It at least explained a small part of it perhaps. As for the Pak scenario? She never heard of something so _bizarre_ before...but something about it just seemed a little...off... "She might not be completely gone...I think there's still a chance she could be in the afterlife." She said, trying to comfort him.

"If that's true that could mean I'll never see her again...If it isn't, she's still gone...and I might not ever see her again...It's been nearly _20 Earth years._..I cannot keep- I- I just can't." Zim bitterly muttered, coming to a certain realization.

"_Zim_-"

"_No_. As much as it pains me to acknowledge this, perhaps you are right, Gaz human...perhaps...I should...just 'let her go' as you say...but I will _never_ forget. Her memory, her legacy shall live on through ME... There's no more room in Zim's Squeedily Spooch for any more hurt...only _conquering_..._destruction_...and maybe some snacks..." The alien finally said aloud, as much as it pained him. At this point he needed to move on. He was tired of feeling grief over it. She was gone, and even he couldn't fix it; he would know; he tried for nearly two decades.

"I'm sorry this happened...just give yourself some time. Try to focus on the good things in your life." She suggested, feeling a little better that he at least stopped sobbing. That was a start.

The Irken still held onto her for a few moments longer. Both of them were quiet. This wasn't exactly how Gaz envisioned this night would turn out. She had just planned to drop the locket on his doorstep and run off...but now it had turned into...something unusual...She never knew Zim had loved anyone...even she had come to appreciate his devout loyalty to this Azel girl...

Zim couldn't believe it either. He had no one to grieve with before. She was the first person who even cared about his story...Who stayed to grieve with him, and make sure that he was okay. The most miserable human on the face of the Earth...was still holding him yet...

After a few more minutes of just sitting with him in silence, Gaz spoke up. "Are you gonna be okay?" She asked him.

"Yes...I think so..." Zim replied, trying to be his confident self about it.

"Alright...because I gotta go home-"

"So soon?!" He asked in surprise, even disappointment.

"Yeah. I have to get some sleep so I can go to school...for what I don't know..." She told him as she let go of him, and finally faced him once more.

The Irken's ruby eyes were glimmering at her as he let go of her. "Oh...I've almost forgotten about your _pathetic_ human sleep cycles..." He said to her, almost embarrassed because he felt like he needed her...he wanted her to stay with him so he wouldn't be alone with his thoughts...worse yet...it's like he had gained even more respect for her... it was a different sort of respect...he respected her before because she could instill horrible fear in people and take charge...but this was something different...she actually had a caring side...This Gaz-_ human._

"Yeah, I know. Um...I'll see you in school, Zim." She quietly said to him as she got off the floor, still staring at him.

Zim too got up off the floor, and stretched his arms. "Okay...See to it that you're there..." He boldly suggested, to his own horror.

"I will be...Take care, Zim." She quitely told him as she opened the door to leave.

"You too.._Fil_\- Eh, human." The Irken told her as he corrected himself, watching her as she grabbed her bat and disappeared into the night. Oddly enough, even though he had a really rough day...he found himself smiling at her just a little, slipping the bean like locket back into his pocket.

The goth girl had reluctantly shut the door. She looked at her phone; it was getting rather late...She walked back home, eager to get some rest...and maybe even go to school tomorrow?

She stood in front of the security panel at the gate of her house. The panel emitted a thin line of green light, which proceeded to scan her face...only it seemed to be a little glitchy...

**_Access denied! _**The robotic voice sounded in a threatening manner.

"You gotta be kidding me!" She shouted in an angry huff. "Stupid piece of crap! Always glitching!" She complained.

_**Leave the premises or prepare to be vaporized... **_The computerized voice forewarned her as two huge laser canons pointed at her.

"UGHHHHH! ALRIGHT! I'M GOING!" The goth girl shouted as she was forced to march away from her own home and back down the street. She would have just broke them, but them, but then a really loud alarm would sound and wake up her Dad... And she knew he needed his sleep too. "Great. How the hell am I supposed to get any sleep?!" She shouted to herself...Until a thought popped into mind. _Maybe I can just crash at Zim's- No. I can't do that. _She quickly reasoned...She walked in the opposite direction until she was near the park. She muttered a few curse words, before deciding to lay down on the park bench with her baseball bat to get some rest.

Within an hour, she reluctantly dozed off...And that's when she started to dream...

It was dark...surrounded by a wooded area...that's when she saw a pair of unusual eyes light up the darkness. Then she saw _her_...The alien figure...the one that was in the locket..._Azel._..the Irken...a familiar set of menacing eyes complete with a wicked grimace emerged from the shadows, looking right in Gaz's face...She reached a gloved hand out towards Gaz...That's when everything went black...and Gaz Membrane felt unimaginable pain shoot throughout her body.

"UUUUGGGGHHHHH!" The sleeping goth grunted in pain as she lied on the bench...trying to force herself to wake up from the agony that was _Invader Azel..._

* * *

_Yeah, I know what you're thinking. This chapter was a pretty emotional one. But on Enter the Florpus, Zim did sob for quite awhile about his mission, and in this fic he's dealt with a major loss, so hopefully it's not too OOC or painfully horrible to read. It's not going to be like this all the time. I need to put some more humor in here to balance out some of the serious undertones. This story is going to be a mixture of everything so I don't want to limit it to just one genre._

_Gaz and Zim do have loss in common in this fic, and it allowed her to empathize more with him. He did gain more respect for her, and she learned that there's more to Zim than she previously thought, so she gained some respect for him as well._

_My friend picked out the OC's name, Azel. I thought it sounded cool. I dunno. I'd like to think if Zim loved someone, it would be really intense and hard to get over. But Azel might not be gone like Zim thinks..._

_How is this a ZAGF and/or ZAGR you ask? You'll have to just find out._


	3. Nightmares

_Hello all! Thank you once again for reading and/or reviewing! Always appreciated!_

_Erin Tesden: Yeah, Zim has been through a lot and I think it came as a complete shock to him when he lost Azel, not only because Irkens are pretty resilient but also because their Paks remain behind. He never got the closure he needed about her death..._

_Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Thank you! The truth about Azel will slowly be revealed, and where Zim and Gaz stand in this situation could be a surprise._

_Invader Johnny: True. Zim always respected Gaz, but for her clever brutality and the fact she's a strong person...Now he saw a different side to her, and to his dismay he actually gained even more respect for the human. Same goes for Gaz's respect towards Zim. She no longer sees Zim as a semi-competent, uncaring psycho...she saw how much he actually cared about another being, and that surprised her._

_Yoari Dank: Oh don't worry about your English. I think it's good :) I read the review just fine. (Also, this goes for everybody, you can leave a review in whatever language you feel most comfortable leaving it in :) I'll just translate it). Those are some really cool theories! We'll see how the story unfolds through both Zim and Gaz's perspectives._

* * *

Zim sat alone on his sofa, not saying a word as he couldn't take his eyes off of the picture of Azel...the silence was surprisingly deafening. Gir was actually quiet for a change, Mini moose was binge watching his prison lady show, and Gaz had just left his presence in order to get her required human sleep cycle. _Gaz..._that human was really full of surprises. Just when he thought and even _respected_ for years that she was a merciless, fear inducing she-beast that hated just about everyone, she goes out of her way to return his lost locket to him, and show him some compassion...she was interested in what he had to say, she cared about his story, and even shared a bit of her own personal history about her mother...she gave him advice...which was more empathy and understanding than anyone else had ever given him. It meant so much more that someone like herself that didn't give a damn about most of the universe took time out of her day to try and help him through his emotions. He felt touched that this human seemed to be there for him.

It felt like a release to be finally be able to share and express his pent up rage, frustration and sadness with someone who was capable of actually comprehending the situation. Oddly enough, it felt like some of the heaviness was lifted off of Zim's chest. But he wasn't completely sure if he was truly ready to let Azel go like he told the purple haired human. On one hand, he felt he _had_ to move on; focus completely on his mission, have some fun with Gir and Minimoose after his success and just enjoy his life...on the other hand, he deeply feared letting her go..._What if she was still out there?_ Irkens are completely loyal to their mates. To just _give up_ on her? He spent _years_ searching for her, _years_ sending signals into space every week in hopes that she would be discovered...after all, he believed Azel was too tough to die. And he was _Invader Zim._..he felt guilty he couldn't prevent the incident, her possible death. He was supposed to be great at _everything_...but this...he didn't want to feel like he failed her, yet in the back of his mind he felt this way...It was his only regret; and a very big one at that. He rubbed the locket he held in his gloved hand, staring at it in deep contemplation as some more tears welled up in his ruby eyes.

"By the way, using metal coils is _cheating._" Gaz's words echoed in his head hauntingly. He stared blankly as he remembered those very same words spoken by his beloved Azel.

"Using metal coils is _cheating._" He heard the phrase in Azel's infamous snarky voice. Zim smiled, it was bittersweet as he bit his lower lip and vividly remembered back to the day they first met each other...

_Years ago...then..._

It was a typical day on Irk's surface... He was currently undergoing a very vigorous, intense training regimen in order to achieve Invader status. Though he wasn't quite an Invader yet, he was a top Irken Elite; considered one of the best soldiers on on the entire planet. He had been going through advanced fight simulations, downloads of secret Irken military knowledge, and intense combat training throughout the whole morning. Though he was eager and particularly excited about his training, he worked up an appetite, and couldn't wait for lunchtime to roll around so he could be dismissed and just pig out! Zim proudly marched through the cafeteria with an empty tray in hand, which was a sea of unfamiliar Irken faces...well, except _one_...

"SKOODGE! HEY! OVER HERE!" Zim shouted to his shorter friend from across the room, impatiently waving his empty tray at him.

Skoodge hurriedly made his way through the crowded cafeteria. He was out of breath by the time he made it over to Zim.

"Where _were_ you soldier?! You missed the first half of training!" Zim yelled at the shorter Irken, knowing full well it was unlike him to miss training or arrive late to anything. Skoodge was always the first to be in class; the first to arrive to training; the first to complete any assignments.

Skoodge gasped for air a few times, half bent over as he placed his hands on his knees, looking completely petrified. "I- I- The Tallest called me to scope out a potential threat aboard the Massive!" He began to tell Zim.

Zim gasped, almost feeling brushed aside by his leaders' choice to enlist Skoodge's help instead of his own. "WHAT?! They called YOU and NOT ME?!" He screamed, feeling a little offended.

"But it actually _wasn't_ a threat at all!" The shorter Irken was quick to inform him, to his surprise.

"Then what was it?" Zim asked, calming down somewhat but still feeling rather curious.

"It was just a few new soldiers that got recently promoted to Elites! They came in through the back port!" He informed him.

Zim arrogantly scoffed. "_Newbies!_ Ha!" He said, passing them off as completely inexperienced wimps who didn't compare to his own greatness.

"The Tallest forgot that they had them coming aboard the Massive today, and the intruder alert went off. Well, they called me in to take care of a non existent threat..." He continued to say, still in a panicked state of mind.

"Well that still should have given you plenty of time to _not_ be late! The Commanders were complaining because you were absent without informing them!" Zim told him.

Skoodge nervously chuckled. "Heh heh, well there's another reason for that...you see, the Tallest had me scrub the main floor of the Massive!"

"Mm hmm." Zim hummed, nodding as he started to lose focus and stare over at the food being served. Skoodge, unaware of Zim's loss of interest, kept talking.

"When I was done, I realized the time and that's when I was in a hurry and sorta banged up another cruiser...it wasn't really a big deal; just a few dents and it looked kinda scrappy anyways, but the girl got really _angry_ about it! She started to follow me back to here and that's when I tried to dodge her...but I just ended up crashing her ship and-"

"WHOA! They're serving _mooshminkies_ here?! And _Splong wings! MM!_" Zim eagerly blurted out in giddy excitement at all the yummy foods.

"Didn't hear what I just said?" Skoodge inquired, feeling a little angry, however the horrible panic he felt overshadowed his irritation.

"_Yeah, yeah_." Zim answered, basically dismissing what he was trying to tell him as unimportant. Zim turned to face the variety of good smelling food that taunted him, as his mouth watered from hunger, eyeing all the new delicious foods that were being served. "OOOH! Vort fries!" He shouted enthusiastically as he took off with his tray.

"Zim! Z-zim don't leave me here!" A shaken Skoodge pleaded, sadly deciding it was actually for the best if he followed the most destructive person on the planet around. He grabbed a tray and some utensils as they walked along the lines, piling their trays up with tons of food. Once their food was paid for, the entered the main cafeteria, where Skoodge gasped in absolute horror as he clutched Zim's shoulder...While Zim just nonchalantly stuffed his face with food.

"What's your problem, Skoodge?" Zim asked in an annoyed tone with his mouth full of Vort fries.

"Th-that's _HER!"_ Skoodge quietly shouted, pointing at the female Irken with piercing burgundy eyes as she made a creepy appearance across the room.

"Huh?" Zim asked in confusion as a bit of food fell out of his mouth and onto Skoodge's shoulder once he caught sight of her. He found himself _staring_ at her, taking in her entire image; from the darkness in her mysterious burgundy eyes, to her unique bouncy antennas, her soft green skin, her nice figure, and most importantly, her fierce demeanor. To say she was pretty was an understatement...she was beautiful in her own _strange_ way. There was only one _little_ issue about her...she was short...even shorter than him! The Irken girl caught him staring at her, and shot him a nasty glare, which snapped Zim out of it, and into a coughing fit as he nearly choked on his fries.

She was quick to hone in on Skoodge, locking her deadly gaze on him. She confidently walked in a straight line through the crowded sea of Irkens in that cafeteria to get to him. He was her sole focus, and Skoodge could have sworn he saw fire light up in her eyes as she let out a low growl...

"_YOU.._." She angrily said through gritted teeth.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" Skoodge screamed, dropping his tray of food as he scrambled to get away from her.

However, the wicked girl activated her Pak's spider legs, using them as she jumped up to grab onto the ceiling. She crawled on the ceiling very creepily at a fast pace, keeping up with her target. Zim watched as she dropped down in front of Skoodge in an instant, grabbing him by the collar. Boy was she freakishly strong...

Her crazed glare met Skoodge's fearful eyes, which were now saucers. "YOU _DAMAGED_ MY SHIP!" She angrily shouted in his face, her hostility level seemed very unpredictable as she gripped him tight and wouldn't let go.

"_S-s-sorry_!" Skoodge barely managed to squeak out, to her utter annoyance.

"Sorry doesn't _cut it!" _She snidely fired back before losing it. "YOU RAN OFF LIKE A _WHINY_ LITTLE SMEET! THEN WHEN I TRIED TO GET YOU TO STOP YOU FLEW RIGHT INTO ME LIKE A COMPLETE IDIOT! YOU MADE ME CRASH INTO THE MASSIVE'S SNACK STORAGE POD! NOW THE TALLEST ARE PISSED AT _ME!"_ She fiercely screamed as she erupted into an explosive rage. Her voice shook the room, and the once noise cafeteria fell into an eerie silence.

"I'M SORRY! I'M SO SORRY SCARY GIRL! DON'T HURT ME!" Skoodge begged for his life as he cowered before her, to Zim's bizarre amusement.

Azel's spider legs extended around Skoodge in a threatening manner, pointing at him as she toyed with her prey...

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?! I'll give you anything!" Skoodge pleaded, desperate to survive his encounter with this wicked new girl.

"I tried to tell you what I wanted before you ran off like a _blithering_ idiot! _I want you to PAY_...for the damage you caused to my ship AND the damage you caused me to inflict on the Massive's snack storage!" She ordered, throwing a stack of papers in his face. It was so heavy it nearly knocked him out!

"WHAT?! But that's so much money!" Skoodge complained as he tried to squirm and escape her deadly grip.

"That's what you get for trying to evade me. Maybe if you would have just paid for the damage to MY ship to begin with, we _both_ wouldn't be in this mess..." Azel complained as she locked her deadly gaze upon him.

Skoodge whimpered almost helplessly. He looked at Zim, and noticed he seemed to be entertained by this fiasco. "B-but...That's-"

"_No buts_...Thanks to your stupidity, the Tallest don't exactly trust me as an Elite now. If I get demoted, after all my hard work, _so do you_..." She sharply threatened him, not at all happy that she already had to try and persuade the Tallest the "The Great Snack Incident" wasn't her fault.

At this poor Skoodge didn't know what to do. To assume responsibility for the incident AND pay for the damage to the snack pods?...It would hurt his clean reputation as a top, competent soldier, and it would take years to pay off...However she was indeed scary...he reluctantly decided it was best to comply.

"O-okay..." He stuttered nervously.

_"YEAH RIGHT!"_ Zim arrogantly blurted out, laughing at the two of them as he stuffed his face with fries.

Both Skoodge and the unfamiliar female snapped their attention over towards Zim. Skoodge began to shake his head, gesturing for Zim to be quiet and not to say anything stupid...

"She _obviously_ has no say over you, _gullible, pitiful,_ Skoodge!" Zim informed them.

"Huh?" Skoodge managed to choke out, while Azel seemed to snarl at his comment.

"_That's right!_ She only _recently_ got promoted to Irken Elite..._isn't that right, soldier?"_ Zim said almost in a daring tone, smirking at her.

"_So what if I did?_" Azel snidely asked, giving him a cocky look.

"Skoodge and I are _Invaders in training_. We're in _Invader class_ now..." Zim bragged, happily dangling their higher ranks in front of her.

She merely scoffed at Zim. She then turned to to face the plump Irken, inspecting him. "You're training to be an _Invader?_ You and that _space clown_ that keeps stuffing his dumb face with fries?" She said in disbelief before letting out a dry, amused cackle.

"Hey! MY FACE ISN'T DUMB! And I'm not a space clown!" Zim shouted back defensively, causing some food to fly out of his mouth and onto Skoodge, to the latter's annoyance. "Since you've only _recently_ acquired Elite status as Skoodge says you did, I bet your Elite ranking is _last..." _He said in a playfully accusing tone.

"_Yeah, so?_ Of course I'm last! I just got promoted to this class! I'll show everyone I can do better than the rest and move up through the ranks just as I've always done." She darkly answered.

"My point is...whatever your name is..." He began to say to the girl, waiting to hear her say her name.

"_Azel. _My name is Azel." She told him as she locked eyes, to Zim's strange delight.

"Ah...My point is, _little_ Azel, is that WE _outrank_ YOU. You can't _possibly_ make these _ridiculous_ demands towards _pitiful_ Skoodge! Especially since you're so..._short." _Zim arrogantly told her in an attempt to not only defend Skoodge but flaunt his status. On Irk, it was all about your career, rank, and status. And for once there was someone shorter than he was and shorter than Skoodge, and he loved to be able to throw it in someone else's face for once...it gave him a strange sense of joy.

This sent the female soldier into a fiery rage. She quickly grabbed Zim's shirt collar, even ripping it as she pulled him close to her face. Her penetrating eyes narrowed, glaring daggers at Zim. "This is about him taking responsibility for what he's done! This has nothing to do with RANK! OR MY HEIGHT!" She angrily shouted, even kind of scaring Zim a bit at that point, though he wouldn't admit it. His eyes went wide as he had the opportunity to get a better look at this interesting girl..._wow_...she was even more beautiful than he had thought...Terrifying _and_ beautiful..._Terrifyingly beautiful!_ It caused his Squeedily Spooch to tingle...A smile accidentally formed on his face, which was rather close to her own.

Azel noticed this, to her surprise. She was quick to release him from her grip and her face turned a darker shade of green. She felt a twinge, a sick feeling if you will, in the pit of her Squeedily Spooch from the close proximity of the guy. She composed herself, redirecting her attention to Skoodge. "You will pay for this! _One way or another_..." She said in a threatening tone as her spider leg pointed in Skoodge's face. "So I suggest it's in cash..._for your sake_." She finished as she released him, backing up until she creepily disappeared in the crowded cafeteria.

Zim and Skoodge looked around the room, losing immediate sight of her.

"She seems like a nice girl, eh?" Zim said obliviously as he nudged the plump Irken in the arm. Skoodge, looked at him as if he was insane. He was trembling in fear, even whimpering from his encounter with the scary female. He was rendered speechless by the sheer horror that this girl just seemed to fill the air with just her very presence. His eyes even started to water, as he had never been so petrified! He would have no choice but to pay for the damage...otherwise she'd probably destroy him...

Within a few moments, the bell rang, signifying lunch was already over. Zim had to practically drag a shocked Skoodge by the arm as they headed down the hallway. Within a moment they both arrived back to their class for more combat training and fight simulations.

The fellow Invaders in training all lined up against the wall, as a taller female Irken with red eyes, dark green skin, a red bandanna tied around her head, and a shirt loaded with military badges stood in the front of the room. They all saluted her obediently, bringing a smile to the female Commander's face.

"Alright, Invaders to be! Before we begin today's lesson, I'm giving you all the opportunity to earn some extra credit in my classroom!" She sternly declared, captivating everyone's attention.

"OOOH! ME! PICK ME!" Zim excitedly shouted, raising his hand, even waving it back and forth, to the Commander's annoyance.

"You don't even know the assignment..." The Commander pointed out.

"I know that I'll do such an_ AMAZING_ job with...whatever it is." Zim confidently assured her, saluting her once more.

The Commander sighed, ignoring him for the moment. "Okay Invaders to be, I have a very important task, should you feel up for the challenge..."

"I AM! PICK ME! ZIM'S UP FOR THE CHALLENGE!" He excitedly yelled, about to burst.

The Commander sighed once more. "The task is to show the few new recently promoted Elites around the building and to act as a mentor. You guys have more experience with fighting, the proper technologies, weapons, and tools, and you know the building. _They don't._ For those that are interested, you'll be assigned one new Elite to mentor."

"Zim a mentor? _Mentor Zim?! _I SHALL TEACH THEM MY INCREDIBLE WAYS LIKE THE WISE-WISDOM FILLED INVADER I AM!" He screamed in absolute eagerness, while everyone else around him seemed to back away.

The Commander rubbed her head as if she had a migraine, as she could only imagine the horrors he would teach the new student. "Anyone else who's NOT Zim want to volunteer?" She asked, as her eyes scanned the room. A few hands were raised, to her relief. "Excellent! NEW ELITES! GET IN HERE!" She said as she flung the door open.

Six new Irken Elites walked in the front of the room. They all looked at the Commander as she read brief reports sent about each individual on her tablet.

"Well don't stare at me! Go find a mentor that's not Zim!" She ordered, causing them all to scatter and immediately find partner with an Invader in training.

"_Aw.._." Zim complained as his posture slumped, mumbling under his breath as no one wanted to be taken under his wing. "_Fine._ The world isn't ready for my AMAZING-NESS anyways!" He complained, kicking over a robot...and causing a huge jolt of plasma to destroy the door...narrowly missing the Commander...

The Commander barely dodged it, as she saw her life flash before her very eyes. She was already in a panicked state as she clutched her chest, and to make matters worse, something else horrific crossed her path.

"Is this _room 47?_ The number's melted off the door." The short, fearless Elite asked in a scary tone of voice.

"Uh...Y-yes. It is..._oh_...you must be _Azel._.." The Commander realized as she appeared to hold up her tablet, reading a profile about the newest Elite.

_"The one and only."_ Azel confidently replied. "I was supposed to be assigned a _mentor?_..." She inquired. Her burgundy eyes scanned the room, quick to notice the two morons from the cafeteria were in her class. She let out an irritated sigh.

"Yes! That's why you're here of course, heh..." She chuckled semi nervously as she tried to remain calm at one of the most horrifying Irkens she ever seen. The Commander quickly scanned the room. She noticed how the rest of the class quickly turned their heads, avoiding eye contact with the new girl. All with the exception of one...

"YOU! Congratulations! You get to mentor this young lady!" Commander shouted to the most destructive Irken she knew, also distancing herself from her eerie new student.

Zim paused for a moment as he stared at the very same girl from the cafeteria, wide eyed. He was unsure if he wanted to share any of his amazing knowledge with her, but his Commander gave him a direct order...and he _did_ previously volunteer.

_"Yes, sir!"_ Zim saluted his teacher obediently. He enthusiastically turned to face the grimacing girl. "Ah _Azel_...Isn't it quite a _strange_ coincidence that you end up being mentored by ME!" He excitedly pointed out. For some reason, his Squeedily Spooch was being overcome by giddiness. "Prepare yourself, LITTLE AZEL, as I have SO MUCH AMAAAAAZING THINGS TO TEACH YOU!" He said confidently, loud and proud.

Azel shot a glare at Skoodge, then approached her 'mentor', not exactly thrilled about it...yet she wasn't disappointed. More or less intrigued, as she caught herself in the midst of eyeing him...his deep ruby eyes, his confident smile, his strong posture, his perfectly straight antennae, and his nice physique. Upon noticing this, an odd feeling made its way into her Squeedily Spooch. _"Let's just get this over with."_ She replied in a huff, trying to cover up the fact she was accidentally checking him out.

"ALRIGHT INVADERS IN TRAINING! Let the mentoring begin!" The Commander ordered, causing everyone to rush to work immediately. At this, she sat at her desk, opening up a digital magazine on her tablet called Irken Conquest Weekly.

Zim smiled his zipper tooth grin as he extended his hand out to Azel, offering her a hand shake.

Azel just looked at him skeptically, not jumping at the opportunity to shake his hand, to Zim's disappointment.

"Oldest trick in the book." She said matter of factly, as she walked past him. She curiously looking at the new and different weapons the Invaders in training used.

Zim looked astonished by this. "HUH?!"

"You were going to grab my hand and throw me over your shoulder." Azel replied, as she was one step ahead of him.

This made Zim sputter in surprise. "_How_ did you-"

"Because I wasn't hatched yesterday, _genius_." She answered, not paying much attention to him as she pick up a maim gun, scoping it out as she held it in her gloved hand.

"HEY! No picking up the deadly weapons! You're not even _in_ this class!" Zim ordered as he took it out of her grasp and sat it down on the table..causing it to shoot a hole in the wall like a canon. "OOF!"

Azel just looked at him, somewhat amused by his unintentional goof up. "So? They let _you_ use the deadly weapons, why not _me?_" She told him as she picked up a different model.

"Because _I_ have attained Invader status, so I can play with the deadly weapons! You're just a recently promoted Elite! _A mere newby!_ And a _short_ one at that!" Zim angrily told her as he took the weapon out of her hands once more.

"GET TO HAND TO HAND TRAINING, GUYS! WE DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!" Commander ordered the class as she sipped some of her soda and read her magazine.

Azel grew annoyed. "You're short too!" She said to the moron as she grabbed some sparring gear off of the table, starting to put the purple armor around herself.

"Hey! I'm taller than _you!"_ Zim proudly pointed out. "Just wait until I'm the next Tallest!" He defensively declared to her.

She let out a cackle. "Not by much...And you? _Tall?_ Okay. We're _both_ not getting any taller than _this_." She said in some form of twisted amusement, checking out her sparring gear.

"Yes _we_ will! I- I mean _I_ will! _Not you!_ That would be so foolish to include you-" Zim corrected himself, not taking his eyes off of her.

_"How do I look?"_ She asked in a bored tone, not really caring, as she was just trying to find ways to amuse and maybe even educate herself while she had to be under his guidance. The armor covered her arms, legs and torso...and looked surprisingly stylish and deadly all at once. She supposed she should have asked him his name by now, but at this point she was getting a kick out of irritating the moron.

Zim was about to yell at her when he stopped dead in his tracks...He took in her appearance as she was dressed in her, well, _his_ sparring gear...she..._looked good. Really good. _

She caught him ogling her, though this wasn't exactly what she had in mind. She was just trying to get under his skin at the moment...though she didn't complain about him looking. The corners of her mouth folded upwards, forming a faint smile as he seemed to stare at her in admiration. And Zim noticed friendly demeanor appear on her seemingly permanent scowling face.

Snapping out of his trance like state, he responded to her. "You know, that's _MY_ sparring armor." He pointed out to her, poking her in the shoulder pad.

"I didn't see your name on it..." She tauntingly responded, standing proudly in front of him.

Which made Zim start to yell once more. "It's written on the _insides!_ I AM- Hey! Put that down!" He angrily said as he grabbed a mini gun from her hand, grimacing at her.

"_What?_ I'm here to learn. You act like I never dealt with actual weapons before." She told him as she fiddled with Zim's sparring armor she wore.

"Yes, yes. You are here to be filled with knowledge from my INCREDIBLE MIND! But first things first. _Give me back my armor._" He demanded, holding his hand out.

"What? _No._ And it's not YOUR armor. It belongs to this facility." She smartly replied.

Zim sighed in irritation. She was right about that. "But it's purple! It's my favorite color! And it's the only size that's _small enough_ to fit me-" Zim stopped himself, realizing why she took it now as she smiled smugly at him. "_Ugh_...Never mind. I'll just use other armor while you're here. The purple seems to suit you best anyways." Zim answered, the latter part seeming like it was an off handed compliment to her as he went to the armor pile, looking for another purple set of armor that would actually fit him.

Azel felt it...That weird feeling arose once again, and she smiled ever so slightly again. "The _maroon_ one." She said in a slightly nicer tone of voice, as she watched him dig through the pile.

"Huh?" Zim asked, turning back around to face her.

"It...goes with your eyes." She quietly told him, as she felt her face seem to grow warm just a bit.

He paused for a moment, observing her once again, noting that she was actually sincere about it. "Oh...Yes. _Yes it does._" He responded confidently, as he started to the maroon colored set she suggested on. Once on, he spun around to face her, looking rather proud as it actually had a somewhat decent fit, to his surprise.

"So are you going to 'train' me or what?" She inquired curiously, placing her gloved hands on her hips.

_"Train?"_ Zim repeated in confusion, forgetting for a brief moment that he might actually have to get physical with her. Fight her... which actually made him nervous...because he didn't want to hurt her.

"Yeah." She answered, waiting for him as she held a fighting stance.

"I-" Zim lost his words. _How was he supposed to train her to fight and go to war when he felt...some concern for her. Maybe even protective? Tossing her over his shoulder was one thing, but Zim knew full well that training sessions could turn downright ugly...He had to do something...think of something..._ "Yes!" He finally answered with usual confidence. Forming a brilliant idea, he decided to throw some very light, delicate hits her way.

Azel narrowed her eyes as the so called Invader in training lightly punched her shoulder, almost in slow motion._ "You're joking."_

"What? This is how we Invaders train!" He defensively told her.

"Yeah because tapping enemies in the shoulder will certainly defeat them and make them run for cover." She sarcastically retorted.

"It will if you're ME!" Zim yelled.

"How many missions have you been on as an Invader in training?" She asked, out of curiosity.

"...That's classified, soldier!" Zim finally answered.

"You haven't been on a _single_ one yet, _have you?"_ She asked rhetorically, already aware of the answer.

_"That's none of your business!"_ He shouted in defense.

"Whatever. I know you _at least_ have decent combat training, right?" She asked.

"Yes. I do. I'm the best, most amazing fighter in this entire class!" Zim bragged, putting his hands on his hips proudly.

"Then _fight me_." She demanded, challenging him as she took a step closer to him, making him tense up.

"I..." Zim stalled. It was the first time he froze up when someone challenged him to spar...

_"You what?" _She inquired to know, severely analyzing his facial features and whatever gestures he was doing with his hands.

"I...don't want to see you get hurt." He truthfully answered, to his own surprise...as well as Azel's...and even the entire class.

_"Why?" _She inquired, almost defensively.

"You're..._different_, I suppose." He nervously chuckled, trying to keep his voice to a minimum to avoid the other classmates from gawking at him.

Azel sighed in annoyance. On Irk, it was highly uncommon to be discriminated against because of your gender. A soldier was a soldier, just another set of hands on deck to help out for conquest. However, when she analyzed him, she realized he suddenly seemed a little more shy. She already caught him staring at her more than once. To her, it was clear for a much different reason...the nameless moron seemed to have taken a personal liking to her, to her own surprise. She blushed a deeper shade of green, to her own horror. "I'm here to get some training to become even stronger. Besides, you don't know what skills I already have. For all you know I could be _A LOT better than you."_ She said, trying to fire up his temper to coerce him into sparring with her.

Had it been anyone else, at this point Zim would have started to spar, but to his own surprise, he blurted something else out. _"Then strike me!" _He shouted challenging tone, but rather out of desperation to get her to stop pushing him to lash out and hit her.

This sort of stunned the dark, seemingly relentless Irken. "Huh? Well...okay. Here I go." She replied, feigning confidence as she faced a similar dilemma...while he kind of annoyed her...she really had no desire to hurt him. She wanted to train with him, but when she held her defensive stance and a balled up fist, armor or not she actually hesitated. She was _notorious_ for being rather dangerous...

"Come on. Don't go easy on me!" Zim told her, at her mercy as he covered his cushioned face protectively.

At this point, her confident posture drooped, and she withdrew her fighting stance, letting out a deep sigh. "This obviously isn't working. Look, I don't actually hate working with you, but I need someone who's serious about this." She stated in sincerity as she was about to turn around to look for another mentor.

_"Don't go!"_ Zim suddenly blurted out, placing his hand on her tiny shoulder to prevent her from leaving his glorious presence. "Maybe we should set some rules? No hits to the face...maybe just pinning, not hitting..." He weakly suggested.

Azel looked at his hand which rested on her shoulder, and the actual sincerity in his face which replaced his normal look of arrogance. "I have to get someone else to train me..." She told him, quite positive this arrangement wasn't going to work out for either's advantage.

"No wait! I can do it!...I can _try_...I can make you _stronger_...teach you my ways...but I warn you...I'm..kinda _dangerous_, you know..." Zim told her, for whatever reason wanting her to stay near him, as his Squeedily Spooch tightened near her very presence.

With considerable reluctance, she let out a sigh and made a decision. "Fine..._Good._..I wouldn't expect anything less. And just a warning, since you don't exactly know me: I'm probably just as dangerous as you are, if not _more_...so, are you going to spar with me, _oh great, wonderful, superior Invader in training?"_ Azel asked, the latter half returning to her sarcastic, half joking tone as she took another chance at a fighting him.

Zim smirked at this, happy that the mysterious girl would still be under his wing. He regained his sparring pose. "Yes...whomever pins the other to the filthy ground first for more than five seconds wins...and I also get to point out every mistake you're making along the way...And by the way, while I _LOVE_ that title you given to me, _I have a name you know...surely you've already heard of me..."_ He bragged, waiting for her move.

"No, I don't know you." She answered, as she struck him in the gut with her fist.

_Thank Irk for armor_..._She seems tough for a newbie._..Zim thought to himself as he cringed. However, he quickly regained his composure from the impact, and made a surprising leap towards her, catching her off guard, however, she blocked his move, shoving him away.

Zim smirked at her, motioning for her to bring it. Not one to be challenged, she came at him full force, and as did he...The two began to spar intensely with each other, throwing, kicks and punches as fast as the other could take them. Zim of course, criticized her methods and motions, though he couldn't help but to be secretly impressed by how much she already seemed to know.

Said moron was actually putting up a fight, to Azel's surprise. She continued to give him her all, showing him and the rest of the class that she's the best fighter they've ever seen...maybe even impress him with her skills...

Neither of them were wrong...they were both quite good. _Excellent_, to be exact. As minutes passed, neither of them tired of fighting with both witty banter or swift actions. As a matter of fact, they almost began to fight intuitively, interpreting each other's moves, and even mimicking them...Hand to hand was going excellent, and the rest of the classroom seemed to watch two of them in awe as they continued to spar so perfectly with one another...even the Commander couldn't believe her eyes...

"ALRIGHT GUYS! LET'S WRAP THIS UP! THIS IS TAKING FOREVER! WEAPONS TRAINING IS IN FIVE MINUTES!" Commander shouted, pointing to a clock.

"YES, SIR!" Zim responded obediently to the Commander as he struggled to pin the girl to the mat.

Azel grunted in strong determination, shoving Zim off of her as she tucked and rolled, now leaping on him. Now, she was the one struggling to pin him for five seconds...

Ironically Zim just smiled at her. _"I've taught you well..." _Zim arrogantly proclaimed, narrowing his ruby eyes at her.

_"You wish..." _Azel snidely remarked, smiling back at him, as she was on the verge of winning, taking down an Invader in training.

_"But not well enough!"_ He declared, hands breaking free from her grip, sparing her a smirk as metal coils shot out of his Pak, quickly wrapping around her arms, legs and torso all at once...

"HEY!" She screamed in annoyance, as Zim moved her to the ground, pinning her there with his mechanical coils. She struggled for a few seconds, unable to break free. Her five seconds were now up.

"HA! I WIN! I'M THE MOST AMAZING, SPECIALLY TRAINED FIGHTER EVERRRRRR!" Zim bragged, as he lifted a captive, irritated Azel up to eye level with him. "I AM FANTASTIC! THE TALLEST PRAISE ME SO MUCH! AND YOU MEAN TO TELL ME, LITTLE AZEL, THAT YOU _SADLY_ DO NOT EVEN _KNOW_ MY NAME?!"

Azel grunted at him, struggling within his coils grip, still not wanting him to win. She snapped backwards with such force, she caused herself to fall down...and take said mentor right down with her.

"OOF!" Zim groaned as he fell on top of her on accident...

The two were close in proximity as they took several deep breaths, hearts still racing from sparring, and now from being in very close contact from one another...They were in each other's faces, maybe only an inch apart...Blood rushed to both of their faces. Zim, wide eyed, quickly scrambled to try to get up, releasing her from his coils. For some reason, neither of them could take their eyes off of the other, and any other distractions in their class had gone ignored as they were in their own little world. Zim offered a hand to help her up, which she accepted...

Zim couldn't help but to keep staring at her, now awestruck.

Azel, for once, felt the same way, as she almost felt entranced by him. Her curiosity had gotten the better of a slight nervous feeling in her Squeedily Spooch.

_"Who are you?"_ She finally asked the male Irken.

Said moron stared in her burgundy eyes, mesmerized as he was in the moment._ "Zim...I AM ZIM!" _He answered as his voice seemed to deepen, and he still held her hand.

"Hmm..." She hummed, almost pleased with just the sound of his name as her lips curled into a smile. Azel's eyes lit up. "Well, _Zim.._._using metal coils is cheating..." _She snidely informed him.

Zim smirked, still nonetheless pleased with her and enchanted by her all at once, as his Squeedily Spooch seemed to feel a certain warmness for the first time ever...

_Now..._

He held back the tears...as odd as it sounded, he wanted to be strong like Gaz-human. While it was painful...he had to let her go. On Earth it was different. The humans had what they called 'funerals', as they had once last chance to say goodbye before their deceased were buried in an odd shaped wooden box. It wasn't the same on Irk, where their dead were usually just vaporized and their Paks collected. Irkens never truly died because of that...not unless the Control Brains deemed them unworthy of being remembered and added to the collective memory banks. Though he never had an official funeral, he needed some closure. If she was out there as Gaz had theorized, maybe he could speak to her...

"Azel...I'll always love you...but I need to move on. I ripped apart entire worlds looking for you. I tried to turn back time, but it just ended_ horribly_...I tried everything to get you back...but now you're just gone...If Gaz human is correct, if you're now on some plain of existence which isn't tangible to myself, I may never see you again. If your Pak is destroyed, I want you to know that you won't ever be forgotten; my memories of you will keep you alive in the Collective...I'm trying everyday to attain success with this planet...we shall _both_ be remembered...I...just want you to experience this 'peace' as Gaz human believes her mother has...She's actually smart, so I don't think that she's wrong...I hope the human is right...I remember you were always so _loyal_ and _fiercely_ protective of me, just as I was to you...It's been almost 20 years...I have to let you go, my love-pig." He said aloud, almost helplessly as he fought any tears welling up in his eyes.

He then very reluctantly placed the locket safely in one of his dresser drawers, trying not to look back...That is, until a scream sounded by a familiar voice made his antennae raise up in bloodcurdling horror...

_Gaz..._

Her scream sounded painful, and it shook him to the core...almost made him panic as he nearly jumped out of his own skin.

He frantically spun around, looking at the monitors. He knew she didn't enter her house, but he wasn't paying any attention to where she went. However, it couldn't have been too far from the locations of his cameras...

He hurriedly put in his contacts and black wig, and ran out the door to find her on pure instinct.

If something had actually managed to scare the scariest she-beast he knew, it had to be bad..._really bad._..

"UUUUGGHHH!" The goth girl loudly groaned out in her sleep as she squirmed, trying to move her body on the rigid bench she lied on. She couldn't see anything, almost like she was stuck in some blinding, oppressive darkness. It was all black now, and it felt like everyone bone in her body was breaking like glass. The intense pain distributed throughout her, leaving her feel nearly paralyzed in her sleep, as she struggled to move her arms and legs. It felt like all of her muscles were being ripped apart simultaneously, and the pain felt so severe she felt like she could _vomit._

_YOU BITCH! _She mentally screamed at the perpetrator who dared to harm her.

Oddly enough, through all of this, she was aware that she was dreaming. She could think clearly, but she still was not in complete control of this nightmare.

_Wake up... _She thought to herself forcefully, trying to command her own body to become awakened.

_Wake up!_ She yelled a second time, with even more force behind her voice as she suffered through the pain, trying to move her arms.

_WAKE UP! _She loudly screamed in her own head, which there was now a dull pounding in her skull.

_Come on! I gotta wake up! _She mentally thought to herself as she seemed trapped in her own subconscious, as the pain only seemed to get worse every passing second. Now, all she could see were the glowing pair of hate filled eyes again, which seemed to be full of a terrifying power so mysterious she actually found herself bewildered, yet worried.

Gaz wasn't one to panic at all, but she felt she was running out of time, and was now in fight or flight mode. Since she couldn't even move properly to fight her off, flight seemed like a more viable option. She needed to leave her sleep.

_WAKE UP!_

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" She screamed as loud as she possibly could in her own subconscious once more, as she tried so hard to move her dead weight body in an attempt to wake herself.

She felt someone now shaking her. The goth girl let out one big gasp, her heart now raced like a cheetah and her eyes popped open as she jolted awake. She was finally successful in forcing herself to come out of this sleep paralysis, as she instinctively reached for the baseball bat, ready to beat the hell out of..._Zim?!_

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Zim let out a startled yelp, not expecting a primitive club to nearly make contact with his beautiful face!

Once she was awake enough to hear the scream, a trembling Gaz dropped the baseball bat to the ground, realizing who was shaking her shoulders, and poking her with a stick... "ZIM?!" She asked in surprise, almost out of breath as she felt the life sucked out of her.

"Gaz human!" He responded fearfully, looking at her as he never once saw the tough girl...look like this. "YOU ALMOST HIT ME WITH A CLUB!" He complained as he held a twig in his hand.

"Yeah, maybe because you were looming over me poking me with a stick in the middle of the night like a serial killer!" She responded defensively. She couldn't feel any more embarrassed that he found her like this...

"I was just making sure you were alive!" Zim declared, sitting aside of her on the park bench.

"What are you doing here?! How did you know I was here?!" Gaz demanded to know, her heart still pounding from the nightmare.

"I heard you screaming on my monitors! Are you alright?" He asked as he flashed a light in her eyes, and inspected her for signs of visible harm.

"It was _nothing._.." Gaz told him, her surly tone returning as she tried to brush it off.

"It was SOMETHING!" Zim accusingly yelled, not taking his eyes off her until he received an honest answer.

Gaz was still trembling involuntarily. She tried to force her body to stop, yet she couldn't. Something deeply disturbed her about her dream...

Zim noticed this, and he actually felt bad for raising his voice for once. Never had he seen her in such a troubling state. Just the sound of her scream...it made his Squeedily Spooch drop. It made him feel..._something? _

She paused for a moment, eyes still glazed over by what had happened...she knew what had happened..._What was she going to say to him? Hey, your creepy, psycho, dead girlfriend tried to attack me in my sleep, no big deal..._He was just grieving about her! It would only serve to hurt him or make him suspicious.

_"It was just a bad dream..." _She vaguely told him, looking away from him.

Zim looked at her attentively, just raising a non existent brow. "Like a_ nightmare?_ I've never seen you look _fearful_-"

"I'm NOT afraid...I was just..._annoyed_.." She corrected as she tried to regain her stoic composure.

He analyzed her with his fake blue eyes. Zim might have been a bit naive when it came to humans and their behaviors, but he certainly wasn't stupid. He knew that whatever had happened scared her. And he knew that it wasn't good. If something was capable of getting a fear induced reaction out of Gaz Membrane, the scariest, most intimidating human he's ever met, it had to be something _bad...really bad..._

He was unsure of what to do to let her know that he was there for her...should he have even _come_ to her rescue? He was supposed to be conquering humans, not saving them...not providing comfort...yet here he was...he felt _bad_ for her. _He wasn't supposed to care..._

"Well, uh, Zim is here with you now...You should be safe..." He said in an odd yet poor attempt to make her feel at ease, patting her on the shoulder.

"What are you saying? I can't take care of myself? Because I CAN..." She angrily told him, folding her arms as she felt like it was an insult to her independence.

"No!" Zim tried to correct his response, not wanting to face any fury directed at him. " I know that you can, that you're _more_ than capable, but I...I came to..."

_"To what?" _Gaz, inquired as she scrutinized him.

_"To help." _He firmly stated in a serious tone as his fake blue eyes met her amber eyes.

Gaz looked at him in strange bewilderment, surprised with his response. Nobody outside of her own family ever bothered to help her. Not that she needed it or anything. Yet she found it kind of touching that he came. She was a resident of Earth, and therefore his enemy. And she knew Zim; she knew he never _offered_ his help to ANYONE...So it truly meant something of importance to her. She shuddered, feeling chilled to the bone, not only from the encounter with the dead alien in the picture, but from the cool night's air.

Zim didn't really understand how to take her silence. He could see that whatever the nightmare was, it had a potent effect on the deadly Earth female. He didn't know what to say to console her, as the wrong words could very well make her infuriated. Thinking back to what she had done to him not too long ago, he attempted to wrap his arms around her, almost protectively, giving her a much needed hug.

His actions once again surprised Gaz, whose eyes widened as she felt herself being pressed closely against him. She was unsure if she wanted to hug him back, due to the nightmare she just had about his dead girlfriend from years ago. However, as much as she hated to admit...him hugging her...well, it made her feel better. She felt a certain warmth from him. She wrapped her arms around him, glad that he came. To her own disgust...she found that she liked it...him being there for her, even hugging her.

_No. No! Why did she feel better when he was around?! Was she going insane?! She was sick! She had to be if she liked him- Well, him hugging her!_

"What were you dreaming of...just out of curiosity?" Zim asked as he held her tight, now feeling her trembling. He didn't know what bothered him more; seeing Gaz human for the first time experience such a fearful disturbance from her sleep cycle, or the fact that he had come to her rescue, and was now holding her, _a human_, in an attempt to comfort her.

"Huh?" She asked, as the Irken snapped her out of her troubling thoughts.

"Well, it's just that I don't get to dream...I'm curious. It would be interesting to see what you dream of..." Zim continued, trying to find out what had scared her in a less abrasive way.

Gaz knew full well it was just a different way of him trying to find out. "I...I don't even remember right..." She told him, lying instead of telling him the truth. Odd. She questioned herself. She rarely ever lied. She was always brutally honest...but now she felt like she covered something major up...just to spare his feelings. She never did that for anyone. As she hugged him, she rubbed part of her arm, which seemed to hurt...

"Oh...Well, y_ou needn't worry about any other nightmares_..._I_ should be the _only_ nightmare that _plagues_ your human mind." He softly told her in a twisted, yet light hearted and humorous way of making her feel better.

Gaz just scoffed at him, admiring his weird sense of humor, even if he was a legitimate threat to her race. "Zim, I _AM_ a nightmare...and anyone who messes with me is just going to find that out _the hard way_..." She darkly said aloud, and indirectly, to _Azel_, as she rolled up her sleeve, glaring at a small bruise on her arm. She was determined to fight back this attack on her soul...

"HA! That makes two of us, scary Gaz human." Zim confidently said to her as he released her from his hug, smiling at her.

Gaz quickly rolled her sleeve down so he wouldn't take notice to the bruise that was now apparent. She smiled at him...not a smirk, but a _genuine_ smile.

"So are you going to try to return to your home?" Zim asked the goth girl as he straightened his shirt out.

She angrily scoffed, remembering why she came out here in the first place. _"Can't._ Not until morning when Dib can let me in." She answered with much frustration.

"_Come with me._ You can spend the rest of the night back at my Base to get your required sleep instead of this filthy bench." He politely offered her, taking her hand and helping her up.

Gaz thought about the consequences of going back to his Base. Going to the Base seemed to start this...however, it beat spending it outside on a dirty park bench near sketchy, rabid humans and hobo clowns...that, and Gaz never backed down from any sort of fight, especially anyone who tried to harm her. She smiled, with dark determination. No, this ghost would not scare her...Gaz Membrane herself would be the monster to scare all other monsters...

"Okay...Thanks, Zim." She quietly told him, accepting his hand. Though she was too stubborn to admit it, she really appreciated his help.

A small cold breeze blew between them, carrying some dead leaves.

Zim paid no attention to this, while Gaz initially noted it as kinda weird.

The Invader smiled at her in a confident, assuring way, as he safely escorted her to his Base in the dead of the night...

* * *

_This chapter focused some more on Azel's back story. Azel's story will be revealed some more in fragments throughout the chapters._

_I thought it would be neat to add sleep paralysis element to this fic, in addition to the nightmare Gaz had. I experienced sleep paralysis first hand, and it can be quite terrifying. Nonetheless, Gaz feels she is ready to fight off any more nightmares. Though, these might not be normal nightmares, as it left her with a small bruise._


	4. No Rest for the Wicked

_Hello readers! And a belated but very happy Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos to all!_

_Invader Johnny: Oh I agree it was one of those meetings where they just instantly clicked with each other. It was like love at first sight, but Zim needs to follow Gaz's advice and find a way to move on from the past...though it might be difficult for both of them._

_Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Thank you! It was fun to write about the past encounter. As for Gaz, things might get a little difficult for her. I can promise that she and Zim will slowly become closer._

_RandomDragon2.0: LOL! Yeah, Gaz wasn't expecting any of this. Azel isn't really at peace, and Gaz does indeed have a struggle ahead of her._

_Erin Tesden: Thank you. I enjoyed working on the back story, and some more of the past will be colliding with the present in future chapters. I had fun trying to write a romantic first encounter between Azel and Zim. _

_DamyDark: ¡Gracias! Quería escribir la reunión de Zim y Azel para que realmente no estuvieran buscando amor o incluso atracción. Están familiarizados con el concepto de amor y, aunque no lo estaban buscando, lo encontraron. Se revelará más del pasado de Azel, al igual que el de Zim._

_Yoari Dank: No te preocupes :) XD De hecho, también me da pena Skoodge. Ese encuentro con Azel fue aterrador, aunque entiendo por qué estaba molesta en ese escenario. ¡Gracias! Trato de mantenerlos en el personaje, pero es un poco difícil cuando escribo sobre una tragedia pasada de Zim. La escena con la armadura es donde Zim básicamente se sorprendió mintiendo sobre su altura frente a Azel, lo que demostró que no era mucho más grande que ella XD Sí, fue amor a primera vista para Zim :) En cuanto al encuentro de Gaz con Azel En su sueño, el subconsciente de Gaz está trabajando y habrá vínculos con un elemento sobrenatural. No puedo regalar demasiado en este momento, pero espero que comience a tener sentido cuando se acerque al final._

* * *

Zim marched confidently through the darkness of the night back to his Base, with Gaz walking alongside of him. A few moments had passed where neither of them said anything to the other. Zim tried his hardest to glance at her subtly, checking on her. He took notice of how she kept rubbing her arm, just above her wrist. However, he just shrugged it off as weird human behavior, and pretended he wasn't secretly keeping an eye on her. Gaz just kept her amber eyes straight ahead, not really looking at him.

She kept seeing flashes of the nightmare replay in her mind...and those _hateful_, carmine eyes which met her own...those very same eyes from the photograph she peeked at... The pitch black darkness...the terrible pain this dead alien somehow seemed to be able to inflict on her with ease...and the _worst part?_ Not being in control. Having no control of her dream, or _her own body.._. Gaz was analytical, yet she could be impulsive at times...she certainly wasn't one to jump to conclusions...but this dream really disturbed her to the core. _If it was just a dream, why did she feel so much pain? If it was just a dream, how did she wake up with a bruise? She knew she didn't bump her arm, and she didn't have it before...If it was just a dream, why did she have such a sick gut feeling?_

_Something's not right..._ Gaz thought to herself as she looked at the ground, keeping up with Zim's pace. _She must be in the afterlife...but if she's strong enough to leave a bruise why didn't she just try to make contact with Zim after all these years? Then again, she came through a dream...and Zim said he doesn't sleep...that makes sense, I guess...But why would she see me as a-_

"_Gaz human_..." Zim suddenly blurted out, getting her attention and snapping her out of her deep thoughts.

_"Hmm?"_ Gaz asked, as she realized she kept touching the mark on her arm, and immediately stopped.

"...I wanted to say something about..._earlier_..." Zim vaguely began to say to her as he searched for how he wanted to exactly word it. At this point, knowing Gaz and her usual temper, he wasn't sure if he should just command it or ask politely instead...

"Okay...What?" She asked, growing a little more interested as she finally made eye contact with him once again, though very briefly.

"Could you...maybe not mention _ANY_ of this to your _horrible_ brother?" He requested as sickeningly polite as he could, growing a tad bit nervous. The last thing he needed right now was for Dib to find out about Azel, not to mention the fact that he broke down and cried in front of the Gaz human. He didn't need his enemies to find out that Invader Zim actually _cried_. He was supposed to be tough and intimidating, enough to strike fear into anyone! It was bad enough it happened in front of Dib's scary sister. Crying was considered a big weakness on Irk, and to a lesser degree, a weakness on Earth as well. And Invader Zim was anything but weak... he didn't want anyone else to know of an emotional weak point, especially considering he was living on an enemy planet. The lowly humans that should fear him could try to mock him for it, and if someone clever like Dib found out, he could somehow try to exploit this vulnerability for his own benefit.

"I'm not gonna say a word..._about ANY of it."_ Gaz firmly stated, looking him right in his false blue eyes. She had no desire to mock him for it, for she endured a similar pain from a devastating loss...and if anyone tried to mock _her_ or use that against _her_, she would unleash _unimaginable horror_ upon their life. She immediately decided she wouldn't tell her brother; not only to spare herself countless rants and an endless barrage of questions about Zim's life...but out of respect for the pain Zim secretly carried throughout the years. She felt _bad_ for the Irken for a change.

Zim narrowed his eyes, with a hint of suspicion, and maybe slight paranoia. "Are you sure you're not going to say anything to him about me?...About-" He stopped himself, as he couldn't even bring himself to say any of it again...and Gaz realized this.

She knew he had his pride. She wouldn't want him to see her cry and tell everyone about it. And she certainly wouldn't want to be reminded of anything painful again by other people. While she had a bad feeling about her dream, she now had respect for Zim; For his relationship with Azel, no matter how _psychotic and unhinged_ she seemed to be. _"No." _She firmly answered.

He looked her in the eyes as a wave of relief washed over him. _"Thank you."_ He told her in a serious tone, glad she didn't make fun of him or mock him for what she had witnessed. She didn't think anything less of him...which made him feel better. He felt much more relieved that he wasn't forced to resort to a trick he had up his sleeve...he figured if she didn't comply, he could _easily_ blackmail her...tell everyone at school how 'terrified' she was over a bad dream and how he stayed with her to comfort her...and maybe exaggerate just a little bit to make it a gossip worthy rumor. It could demolish her tough, not to be messed with reputation that she established with the rest of the primitive humans, and make her life _equally_ as bad as his... He was glad it wouldn't have to come to that, though he was curious about one little thing..."What _are_ you going to tell him?" He asked, knowing full well that Dib would ask a ton of questions concerning her whereabouts.

Gaz sighed, already prepared to deal with Dib. "Okay, here's how this is gonna go...We're going to keep it _vague_ so you don't blow it by accident...I'm just going to tell him that I found your necklace. I went to your Base and sat it on your doorstep so you stop breaking in our house looking for it. Got locked out of the house thanks to the security system's _crappy_ facial recognition technology. Had no where to sleep, so it was either outside at a park _full_ of deranged lunatics eating roadkill, or go to _your_ house. Both choices _sucked,_ but I went to your Base so I had a roof over my head and so _certain_ _lunatics_ would stop poking me with sticks _'to see if I was still alive.'_" She answered very keenly, more or less giving him an order, as well as a tiny smirk.

"Wow...You _really_ had this thought out, didn't you?" Zim answered, impressed by how quickly she planned the sort of lie... and catching on to the latter part of her comment. "And _Zim's_ not a lunatic!" He defensively yelled in the middle of the night.

The dark girl snickered him. "Believe me, the last thing I need right now is _another_ lecture from Dib...which I'm _still_ going to get, but at least he won't know about the rest of it..." She told him in an assuring way. "And denial is a _beautiful_ thing..." She answered half jokingly to the Irken, smirking at him.

Zim smiled very smugly at her as he quickly thought of something witty to fire back. "I could say the same thing for you too, seeing how _not-scared_ you were..." He retorted, smirking as he awaited a reaction from the horrifying girl.

_"Watch it."_ She warned him, as she began to subconsciously touch her arm once more. "And I_ wasn't_ afraid. Just..._angry._.._shaking mad_ from being filled with a horrible rage..." She told him defensively, not only kind of lying to him but herself as well. That dream...it still disturbed her, no matter how much she tried to shake it off.

"From a dream which you cannot even _remember..."_ Zim said in a slight accusing tone, narrowing his eyes as his face came much closer to hers. He acted as if he was a skilled sleuth about to crack open a mystery.

"It was _just_ a dream..." She told him firmly, quickly turning her face away from him, and lightly shoving his shoulder away so she could have some space. She didn't want him to prod any more about it..._although..._ she was curious about something...and wanted more of a confirmation for it..."Speaking of _dreams_...you said you don't _ever_ have dreams?" She inquired, as she seemed to analyze him up and down about it. To her, that concept was truly alien. And if it was entirely true, that meant Azel had no way of contacting him via dreams at least.

"Well _of course_ I have _dreams!"_ Zim proudly began to tell her. "...Just not the way you humans do. To a _superior_ race, dreams are for the _reality_; for those of us who are _always_ awake. A goal or idea which you _make real_ by doing hard work to succeed...not some mental collage of random images strung together by your resting brain which isn't in full function during the sleep cycle..." He explained from his own very alien point of view to the dark girl, who looked at him in some form of weird amazement.

"So you _never_ _truly_ sleep?" Gaz asked as she raised a brow, genuinely interested in the weirdness of it all...and wanting to confirm what she already knew.

"_Nope_. I mean, I've been knocked _unconscious_ a few times, so maybe technically my brain was temporarily asleep...Perhaps I even _dreamed_ of something, and can't remember...My Pak just reactivates me." Zim pondered aloud, shrugging his shoulders, trying to recall the last time he experienced the primitive condition.

_"Reactivates?"_ Gaz repeated, as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Yes. My Pak provides me with a constant flow of renewed biological energy, so I don't _require_ sleep." He answered, almost happy that she was asking questions about him so that he boast about himself and his race...that and it was kind of refreshing to have someone actually listen to him with interest for once...

"Hmm...I'm guessing you don't ever just sleep to pass time? Or just for the hell of it?" She inquired, as she wanted to know more about the subject.

He looked at her in confusion. "No. I suppose I _could_ just to relax but I have entirely _too much_ that needs to be accomplished. I can't waste eight to nine hours per day on sleep!..._No offense." _He told her, the latter half coming off as demeaning to her by accident.

_"Whatever. _Everybody needs some form of break from their life though." She told him as she walked alongside of him. "That would also help explain why you're so _crazy_ sometimes..." She retorted, smirking at him.

_"Yeah, right. Zim needs no vacation!_ And I'm not crazy! That's your horrible _brother_, remember?!" He shouted, feeling the need to remind her of Dib's crazy behavior as well.

"_I didn't mean a vacation, though maybe you should take one._ If humans don't get enough sleep, it's bad. They start to become _delusional_, and hallucinations will set in." She told him in a factual tone.

"Now you're comparing _ME_ to a _pathetic_ _human?_ HA! I'm _Irken!_ We don't _need_ it! Lack of sleep doesn't take a toll on someone as _amazing_ as myself. _Beat that._ How long can filthy humans continue _consecutively_ without rest?" He inquired, eager to prove his superiority once again. He enjoyed doing so. It was just in his nature.

"_Not long._ It's bad enough for people if they don't dream...it's like getting empty rest, which can make some people go _crazy_...but it's even worse if you don't sleep at all. It takes a toll on you mentally and physically. You'll probably start to hallucinate and unable to differentiate reality and dreams at some point. Humans can actually _die_ from sleep deprivation..." She darkly informed him in her usual morbid manner.

"That's so _primitive_...and _inferior_...And I don't understand what's so important about these dreams that humans cannot function properly without them!" He yelled once more, as they both approached the door of his Base of operations.

"There's actually _scientific_ reasons for why we dream." She informed him in a factual tone.

"_Science?_ How can that be? How do _you_ know?" Zim inquired, rather skeptically.

"Yeah, science. I know because my Dad is a famous scientist, for one. Two, there's been numerous studies on the subject. Three, I've had other dreams before." She answered.

Zim just stood there a brief moment with a perplexed look on his face. "EXPLAIN MORE TO ZIM!" He demanded, almost dying to know.

Gaz sighed in slight annoyance at his ear piercing loud tone. "Most of the time, dreaming is a way for your mind to sort out _complex, real life problems_ and find answers for them. Other times...well, it's just _different_." She explained to him, watching the Irken as he opened up the door and motioned for her to enter. The goth girl walked past him, entering his house once again.

"Oh...Well, in your case, I think you might be better off without the sleep cycle type of dreams...you don't seem to need them since you're more than capable of solving complex problems while you're awake...and as for any other sort of dreams; goals and such..._I would focus more on those._" He told her, unwittingly giving her a subtle encouragement as well as a bit of advice. Invader Zim admitting someone, especially a human, was 'more than capable' was practically unheard of.

Gaz looked at him in some form of strange astonishment, as he was basically trying to give her advice to improve her well being, and not only that, but providing encouragement to work on her own goals. It caused her to smile abruptly...he really was full of surprises tonight...

Zim smiled back at her, staring at her for a brief few seconds. "Well, uh, you can sleep on my couch for the remainder of the night." He told her as he quickly gestured to the pink couch, and then quickly walking away from her.

Gaz raised an eyebrow at this, as she sat down on the cozy pink couch, trying to get comfortable. Zim, however, was quick to come back with a purple blanket and plush black pillow in his arms.

"Here ya go." He calmly told her as he handed her the soft throw blanket and plush pillow.

_"Thank you."_ Gaz quietly responded, slightly taken aback by Zim's weird kindness as she placed the pillow on the far end of the couch and covered up with his purple blanket.

Zim just nodded, as he couldn't exactly find the right words he wanted to say to her. He turned to walk away from her...

"Where are you going?" She quickly asked, as the words seemed to just slip out of her mouth as her sudden curiosity had gotten the better of her. She wasn't supposed to care what he was doing or where he was...

He turned back around, raising a non existent brow at her before answering. "Oh, um, I must check on all my hideous experiments, check on Gir and Minimoose, make myself something to eat, go over my latest plans to conquer your _pathetic, doomed_ world-_the usual._" He nonchalantly replied, as he scratched his head, silently pondering why she needed to suddenly know his whereabouts.

"Okay. _Have fun._" She darkly answered, watching him still staring at her. He probably was wondering why she asked him that. The alien smiled briefly, walking away. _Funny._ _How ironic is it that an incompetent alien who wants to conquer the world and doom practically everyone made sure that I'm safe and even comfortable? _She thought to herself, almost musing at it, that is, until a shrill voice interrupted her thoughts.

"MASTER! You're back!" Gir suddenly screamed as he popped his head out of a random turkey sitting in the kitchen. The little SIR unit climbed out of the turkey, covered with stuffing and gravy, and happily sprinted to Zim. "IT'S ME! I WAS THE TURKEY ALL ALONG!" He screamed gleefully, hugging Zim's legs.

"I would say it's good to see you Gir, but considering you're covered in gravy and hugging me, that would be a LIE." Zim said to him, visibly disgusted by the mess the little bot had made.

"I missed you too!" Gir happily yelled as he clung to Zim's leg. His attention was then diverted to the sofa once he saw a certain purple haired human laying there. "GAZZY! OOOOH! ARE WE HAVIN' A SLUMBER PARTY?!" He excitedly yelled, bouncing up and down, rolling around in gravy on the floor in front of them.

"No, Gir. She's just here to get some rest." Zim explained as succinct as possible.

"Oh...whyyyy?" The little robot asked, as he walked over to her. He pulled a turkey leg out of the compartment in his head, and shoved it in the dark girl's face.

Gaz let out an irritated growl as a warning, swatting the drumstick out of her face, and Zim quickly pulled him away.

The alien let out an annoyed sigh. "She's locked out of her home. Come, let's-"

"Does she live HERE now?! YAY!" Gir cheered, bouncing up and down some more.

"NO, GIR! She's only here for _one_ night until she can access her home once again." Zim tried to explain to the deranged but adorable little robot.

"_Aw_...Can we keep her?" Gir asked, trying his best to pout about it. Gaz smacked her head in annoyance. _She could already tell this was going to be a restful night..._

"For the last time, Gir, we ARE NOT _keeping_ her here!" An exasperated Zim shouted, growing frustrated and a bit embarrassed.

"WHY NOOOOOOOT?!" Gir cried, throwing a full blown childish tantrum as he stomped on the floor.

"Because she has her own home!" The Irken tried to emphasize to him.

"But- But...I'll feeds her gravy, and PUDDING! And comb her hair and give her a water and take care of her!" Gir desperately pleaded to Zim, wanting to keep Gaz.

The alien smacked his head by the robot's suggestion. "She's not a _hamster_, Gir. Remember what happened when I let you have a hamster?" Zim asked, tapping his boot, waiting for a response from the little robot.

"Oh yeah..." Gir said as he spaced out, remembering back to when he used to have a pet. "I'll do better this time! I won't put her in the microwave! Can I keep her?!"

"NO!" Zim replied, immediately cutting him off.

"WHYYYYYY?!" The deranged robot screamed like a three year old, having a meltdown.

_"BECAUSE!..."_ Zim shouted back sternly, not bothering to give an explanation yet again.

"BECAUSE _WHY?!"_ Gir asked, slamming his little fists off the coffee table.

"BECAUSE I SAID SO!" Zim firmly shouted back in a know it all manner to the little android...causing him to roll around the floor and throw an even bigger tantrum, and make a bigger mess.

"UGH! COME ON GIR! STOP IT!" Zim demanded as he attempted to pick him up and get him to stop.

"I DON'T WANNA!" Gir cried as loud as possible.

Gaz sighed in annoyance as she sat up on the couch. "HEY! Could you two be _any_ louder?!" She finally snapped, having heard enough of the childish meltdown and Zim's poor attempts at parenting a crazed robot.

Both Zim and Gir fell silent as they stared at their new guest. _"He started it!"_ Zim finally yelled, as he pointed his finger at Gir in a blaming manner.

"I don't care who started it! I just need to get some sleep! You wouldn't want me to go _CRAZY_, _would you?!"_ She angrily reminded him, as she fluffed her pillow and laid her head down once more.

"NO. I have enough craziness from your _horrible_ brother. And _Gir_." Zim calmly responded, as he and Gir just exchanged a look. "I'm gonna go check to see how my hideous experiments are doing so I can end your world soon..._On that note_..._Rest well."_ Zim casually said as he left the room smirking manically, dragging Gir by the arm along with him as well as a trail of gravy.

Gaz breathed a sigh of relief that they finally left her presence. While she wasn't exactly thrilled about going back to sleep, she still needed her rest. And she would be damned if an alien ghost thought she was going to harass her...Although she couldn't take her mind off of Zim, not to mention the nightmare of his dead girlfriend, the goth girl managed to drift to sleep after awhile...

And it wasn't before too long that she started to _dream_...

She was back at her house...sitting on her sofa, game slave in hand, slaying blood pigs. It was _deceptively relaxing..._She continued to play, hearing a crack of thunder which shook her house. The goth briefly glanced up from her Vampire Piggy Hunter game, looking outside the empty window. Not noticing anything out of the ordinary, she went back to playing her game...Except something was..._different_ about her character...The Vampire Piggy Hunter D. seemed to take on a resemblance to someone of familiarity to her..._Zim_...He was wearing the character's wide brimmed hat and costume, and carrying a sword, smirking...

Gaz's eyes widened upon noticing the character's transformation, as the surprise caused her to accidentally drop her Gameslave.

_"Crap!"_ She muttered, _blushing,_ and shaking her head at what seemed like a hallucination. The idea of Zim cos-playing, especially as the Vampire Piggy Hunter from her favorite game, _weirded_ her out to no avail. As she reached down to get it, she heard another crack of thunder, this one sounding closer to the house. She grabbed her Gameslave, and snapped her attention over to the direction of the window...noticing _nothing out of the ordinary._

She looked back at her Gameslave, only to see that instead of a full charge, the battery was almost dead, and she wasn't at the save point, to her horror. She had to do a double take, upon noticing there was no more Zim dressed like a Vampire Piggy Hunter...now there was _another_ Zim, running around on screen wearing some sort of weird hat, apron, and goggles on his face, running with a bag of fries...

Gaz squinted her eyes in disbelief at the image. _What was he supposed to be now? A frycook?_ "What the f-"

She was cut short when she heard the sound of faint whispering. _A woman's voice_. She was unable to pinpoint the direction the voice was coming from, but she tried to carefully listen to what was being said. From what she could tell, seemingly random phrases were sounded by a _snarky_ female voice...

"I _destroyed_ them ALL..."

"It's _completed_..."

"Because I wasn't hatched yesterday, _genius."_

"I designed it myself as a contribution..."

"Zim, I'm coming!..."

_"Yes...my Tallest..."_

_"One of my greatest inventions..."_

"Nachos! _Give them to me!"_

"I'll just rip your spine out through your throat, _that's all."_

"Yes, my _Tallest."_

_"I EARNED my place."_

_"Who are you?"_

_"Zim!"_

_"I ALWAYS WIN..."_

_"You're going to suffer horribly...that's a promise..."_

These raspy whispers seemed to swirl around the goth girl, maybe even closing in on her. She quickly looked all around, still trying to find the source.

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU _WANT?!_" Gaz finally shouted, growing very irritated at this point as she took a defensive stance, prepared to fight. At this point, she heard scraping on the window..._clawing_, to be more precise. The whispers came to a screeching halt, and were now replaced by a horrible ringing sound in her ears. She cupped her hands around her ears, trying to muffle the intense sounds, all while looking all around the room for her. The goth soon caught a glance of a dark shadow gliding by in a standing mirror. Her attention was immediately drawn back to the window, when a lightning bolt struck, illuminating the outside...and revealing a battered looking Azel, glaring menacingly at her. The light from the flash quickly faded, and the figure of the dead alien mysteriously vanished along with it.

The goth girl scanned the room with her eyes, looking for anything that could be used as a weapon against the alien if she decided to attack. She realized her baseball bat was in the corner of the room. She sprinted over toward the bat, grabbing it and holding it up in the air, ready to strike if need be. That's when another crack of thunder boomed, followed by a streak of lightning. The figure of the dead alien girl wearing a tattered deep purple and black striped shirt, as well as holey, black gloves, stood on the opposite side of the window, grimacing at her intently. Gaz stood her ground, unimpressed by her tactics. As soon as the female appeared, she just as quickly disappeared, creepily melding into the darkness outside.

"I'm _warning_ you..._Azel._...If you try anything stupid again, you're going to have a _second_, _agonizing_, _painful_ death." The dark girl ominously forewarned, glaring ferocious daggers through the window to the creature that was lurking in the shadows.

Another lightning strike illuminated the outside, as well as causing a power outage to the interior of the house. At the exact same time, the goth girl felt an intense sharp pain on the side of her head. She tried to ignore it as her sole focus was to confront her undead attacker. The dead Irken girl now hung upside down as she dramatically peered into the window, her deep, creepy, hateful gaze now fixated on Gaz Membrane. Azel very slowly, eerily pointed a finger at Gaz. The goth girl started to turn around, only to notice that the standing mirror was now steamed up, and had a message of sorts written on it. The goth girl could only glance at it for a nanosecond, only seeing the words '...IS MINE', because it spontaneously shattered, sending glass shards flying everywhere.

Gaz, who was more than fed up at this point, angrily flung her baseball bat through the window, shattering the glass as she nearly hit the dark figure that seemed to meld back into the shadows. The goth girl scoffed, almost arrogantly at the one who tried to threaten her.

_"Like that's really going to work on me!"_ She sarcastically snapped back to the dead Irken. She arrogantly scoffed at Azel. "_Child's play._ I pulled the same little stunt when I was _ten years old!_ _Like I'm really afraid of you!" _The dark girl angrily shouted, trying to provoke Azel to come out of the shadows and into the light. Supernatural or not, Gaz was more than ready to get her hands on this spiteful dead alien.

A moment had silently passed before four cold, metal spider legs were suddenly extended into the broken window, the figure of the dead female alien now trying hard to get in her house around shards of broken glass. Gaz was ready to fight her off, running towards the window in deadly determination, about to attack the intruder.

_"I always win." _Azel's dark voice quietly rasped, as Gaz felt like her air supply was suddenly being cut off.

The adrenaline induced panic of the situation jolted the once sleeping goth awake, gasping for air. She shivered, taking several deep breaths before realizing that she wasn't alone...

Gir was right in her face, to her complete and utter annoyance. She lightly pushed the giggling robot away from herself, and looked over toward the kitchen. There was Zim, unaware, with his back to both of them, scrubbing the floor and spraying disinfectant like a mad man. Worse yet, he was wearing green overalls, over sized tissue boxes over his shoes, yellow rubber gloves, green goggles, and a pink flowery shower cap over his head. She quietly snickered, finding herself amused. _He was always trying to be this bad ass evil villain, and here he was wearing this ridiculous neat freak get up and screaming at tiny germs for no apparent reason!_

"_Stupid, stinking, filthy_ GERMS! JUST _DIE!"_ The alien muttered to himself, going to war against microscopic intruders as he cleaned Gir's mess. He vigorously scrubbed the floor, and continued to spray disinfectant, almost obsessively. The rest of the kitchen was practically sparkling clean, to Gaz's surprise. She was actually a little impressed...

"AW! You so pretty!" Gir giggled insanely, drawing Gaz's attention back to the little bot.

"BE QUIET, GIR! It's bad enough you caused a _horrible_ germ infestation in my beautiful base once again, but you absolutely CANNOT wake the Gaz-human! Otherwise she'll go crazy or _something!_" Zim quietly warned his SIR unit, not bothering to even look back at him.

"Oh...Okey dokey...GAZZY YOU LOOK REALLY PRETTY NOW!" The deranged robot screamed as loud as he could in excitement as he held up a small hand mirror in front of Gaz.

A seething rage boiled inside Gaz once she saw what he had done to her while she was asleep...Her hair was now in several messy braids with pink and red bows, she was wearing thick, cakey mascara, messy eyeliner, and bright blue eye shadow. Red lipstick was scribbled on her lips like a crayon. Bright pink blush was painted on her normally pallor face. And to top it all of she also was covered in smiley face and pizza stickers from head to toe! And to make things even worse, she noticed she was wearing Zim's 'bean' shaped locket around her neck!

"I GAVE YOU A MAKEOVER SO YOU LOOK REALLY PRETTY FOR MASTER!" Gir excitedly shrieked, bobbing up and down.

Zim's eyes widened beneath his germ seeking goggles upon hearing his crazy robot say those insane words.

"UGH! I'M GONNA _DESTROY_ YOU FOR THIS!" Gaz screamed out loud, shaking with a rage that could not be quelled. She quickly removed Zim's locket, tossing it back at Gir, who happily caught it in his paws.

"HEY! WHAT'S GOING ON-" Zim started to shout, and stopped once he saw Gir running around with lipstick, and the Gaz human with a quite _different_ look. "Oh..._HOLY TALLEST!"_ Zim shouted in complete surprise once he took in what had happened to Gaz, then actually falling into silence. He stared at the angry goth for a moment, but he couldn't hold it in any longer. "YOU LOOK _COMPLETELY_ RIDICULOUS!" The Irken shouted, pointing at her as he burst into an uproar of laughter. Not thinking properly, he quickly grabbed a nearby tablet and snapped a picture of her new look, to her irritation.

Gaz's face started to turn red as she squinted her eyes at the arrogant alien, balling her hands into fists. "Your _stupid_ robot did this to me when you weren't _watching_ him! And I could say the same thing for YOU, you know. You're dressed like a _side show!"_ She yelled in defense, as she got up off the couch and pointed her finger in Zim's chest.

"HEY! Zim's not a side show! This is merely improvised tactical gear to protect my glorious self from the HORRORS of cleaning up _Earth-filth_ that Gir left behind in the kitchen!" Zim shouted in defense, holding up a can of disinfectant and a scrub brush.

Gaz scoffed, smiling in amusement as she looked his germ gear up and down. "_Tactical?_ _Yeah right_. You're wearing some granny's shower cap, old man overalls, and you have over sized tissue boxes covering your shoes. Yeah, _that's normal."_ She retorted, to Zim's utter annoyance. She quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket, snapping a photo of the Irken before he could even blink.

"HEY! NO PICTURES!" Zim shouted in a panic as he tossed his germ killing gear and tablet behind him and made a failed grab at Gaz's phone.

_"Why not?_ You took a picture of me looking like _this!_ You LET this happen! It's only fair I have a photo of the 'almighty Invader Zim' looking like a _crazy_ housewife!" Gaz retorted in a dark tone, holding up the picture of Zim dressed in the ridiculous 'germ gear'.

"What do you _want_ from Zim?!" He angrily shouted in her face.

Her eyes met his green tinted goggles, staring him down. "I'll delete the photo of you...only IF you delete the photo you took of me." She demanded, poking him in the chest.

"Fine. Consider it done." The Irken calmly told her, picking up his tablet and his canister of disinfectant. He sprayed some Germ-be-gone on his chest where she touched him, smirking at her as a way to deliberately offend her.

Gaz rolled her eyes at this. "And you'll delete any back ups of that photo as well." She told him in a mildly threatening tone.

_"Oh come on!"_ He complained. "I happen to like this photo of you! I think it makes you more..._approachable_." He said jokingly as more laughter escaped from his mouth.

"Delete it NOW...or suffer the consequences." Gaz ordered, folding her arms, giving him a final warning.

Zim sighed in defeat. "_Oh okay!_ We'll delete _both_ photos at the same time! _HAPPY?!" _He answered in agitation.

_"Deal."_ She answered, smirking at him.

With that, the two of them deleted both photos, though the strange image of the other would forever be burned in their brains. Zim started to remove his 'germ gear', tossing his yellow gloves and shower cap to the side. He looked at Gaz, who just stood in place in some form of strange contemplation. He bravely decided to speak up.

"Gir was _horribly_ wrong you know...you look so much worse with that _goop_ on your face." Zim felt the need to say, as a twisted form of a compliment which came off yet as a bit of an insult.

"_Thanks_..." She sarcastically replied.

"You are most welcome, human!" He naively answered, smiling at her.

"I gotta wash it off..."

"The bathroom's on the lower level to the far left. You'll have to take the elevator." Zim informed her, gesturing to the weird red tube in the room which was a make shift elevator.

"Alright." She said, walking towards the elevator. Suddenly, she felt a gloved hand grab her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.

"_Gaz human_...be careful as not to disturb my hideous experiments...two of them are _almost_ ripe." He warned her, wanting to make sure she exercised caution while going anywhere near his lab.

The goth just looked at his hand resting on her shoulder, which he then removed. "_Whatever._..And next time if you want real 'germ gear', I'll have to lend you my hazmat suit. At least it looks _cool._" She told him, walking away.

"_Hazmat suit?_ Why do you have one of those? You detest the germs as well?" He curiously asked.

"I got it from my Dad...I live with Dib, so I NEED it to survive because he hardly _ever_ cleans his room. Sometimes the smell is so bad me and my Dad have to burn some of his stuff..."

"Oh I know. I remember now..._Cameras" _He reminded her, remembering the days when Dib's room would be overcome with a horrible filth.

The goth girl just smirked. "Imagine Gir's mess times ten...and _yes_. I _hate_ germs too." She answered, shrugging her shoulders as she watched his facial expression seem to change.

And there it was...he was giving her a small but weird, genuine smile again. He felt a bit surprised they both had this in common, especially since she was a human. "Well, uh, I suppose I should go wash Gir's dog disguise..." He trailed off, changing the subject. "GIR! Where are you?!" Zim shouted.

The dark girl entered the elevator, relieved that it was no longer a toilet shape like he used to have. She headed to the far left and found the bathroom...which was also sparkling clean, to her surprise. She proceeded to use the mirror and some towels to wipe the make up disaster off of her face...

In the mean time, Zim struggled to get the green doggy disguise off of Gir. Once he did, he shook it out, only for his locket to tumble to the floor. Zim sighed as he picked up the metallic crimson and violet Squeedily Spooch shape. He very quickly placed it back into the drawer where he left it, wanting to avoid the image triggering an emotional reaction again. He decided he would no longer wear it, but keep it a distance in a dresser drawer instead. "Gir. Whatever you do, don't run off with my locket. I don't want you losing it." He scolded his SIR unit.

"Okey dokey! I'M NAKED!" Gir yelled maniacally as he streaked throughout the house. Zim just shook his head in disgust.

Gaz came back, standing there as she untangled one last knot from her hair, her pale face free from any make up.

The alien turned around, smiling at her as he breathed a sigh of relief. "_Ah._..You've returned to your far less _revolting_ form." He smartly commented.

Gaz just smirked at him, almost getting used to his weird sense of humor as she climbed back on the couch and pulling up the blanket...however, she did not lay down. She sat there with her eyes open, her arms wrapped around her knees which she brought to her chest. She had no real intention of going back to sleep.

Zim watched her curiously. "Do humans always sleep like that?" He inquired as he continued to stare at her almost suspiciously. He already knew the answer, but he had to be sure...

"I'm not _going_ back to sleep." Gaz responded in a somewhat grumpy tone of voice, looking at the blanket rather than at him.

"_Why not?_ You told me if you don't get the required hours of sleep that need that you would go crazy." The Irken felt the need to point out. He really wanted answers about her bizarre sleep cycles.

"_I know what I said._ I just _can't._ Not right now." She quietly mumbled, not wanting to talk about it. She had minimal time to even process what her dream meant to her. Why Azel wanted to attack her...but then again, she woke up wearing the locket necklace. She touched the locket necklace before this all started...Maybe her spirit was somehow attached to Zim's Squeedily Spooch locket...

"Another nightmare?" Zim reluctantly asked, daring to sit on the couch aside of her. He fidgeted somewhat nervously, not knowing if he should try to hug her again or not...

She sighed, trying to refrain from giving a usual honest answer...she was soon interrupted by crashing sounds and loud screaming.

"I'M NAKED! WHOO! LOOK AT ME GO!" Gir screamed like a maniac, bumping into various items, including a big shelf. The shelf tumbled over, spilling out all of its contents...

"GIR!" Zim angrily screamed. "STOP MAKING A MESS OF THINGS!" He yelled some more, running over to inspect what he had stored in there to make sure it wasn't broken...

Gir ran off giggling, while Gaz stared at the mess Zim begun to pick up, almost _mesmerized_ by it. "Whoa!" She uttered in complete astonishment for a change.

A ton of Irken designed video games laid on the floor, along with several systems, and controllers, all of which were completely new to the gamer girl.

"Zim..where have you been hiding these my whole life?" Gaz asked as she stepped behind Zim's shoulder, hiding her excitement, and temporarily pushing Azel out of her mind. She went wide eyed by the amount of violent looking games he had in his possession, all of which any other gamer on Earth would have never had the chance to play.

"Oh...you see I never _EVER_ let anyone play my video games, well except for me. They were actually-" Zim stopped himself for a brief moment, not wanting to bring back any nostalgia from his past. He took a moment to watch the purple haired human happily dig through the video game pile. He couldn't help but to smile, and have a last minute change of heart. "Uh, you know what? Gir will just break them sooner or later anyways, and I never have anyone to compete with...would you like to play with me?" He asked, holding up one of his favorite video games, the cover of it was dark, bloody, and violent.

Gaz's tired eyes lit up. "Yeah." She eagerly responded, as a smile formed on her face. _He has enough video games to last for months! And the violent kind too!_ She excitedly thought to herself beneath her cool exterior.

The Irken smiled with delight, grabbing a console and a disc, and setting it up on the coffee table in front of the giant flat screen television...

For the remainder of the night, the two of them quietly played one of Azel's favorite games together. For the most part it was quiet, with occasional competitive jabs taken at one another. Strangely enough, Gaz human seemed to be a natural at Irken games, and Zim himself had a tough time keeping up with her. For the most part they had a good time...that is, until it was time for Gaz to head home and see if Dib was awake.

She reluctantly saved her game at that point, to Zim's surprise.

"HEY! I wasn't finished trying to destroy you!" The Irken shouted at her.

"I have to go home. Dib should be up right now." Gaz told him, not really wanting to leave what seemed like video game haven.

"Five more minutes! PLEASE?!" He begged, tugging at her hand for her to sit down.

The dark girl sighed in frustration. "Zim, as much as I would _love_ to sit here and play video games all day, _I can't_. I have to go home, eat something, take a shower and go to school." She reminded him, letting go of his gloved hand.

At this, for some reason, Zim seemed to slightly panic. He didn't want her to leave his presence. It evoked certain mixed emotions in him, including disgust, and some form of need... _"Oh alright."_ He complained, as he saved the game and shut it down. He got up from the sofa, as did she, and showed her to the door. "Maybe we can do this again sometime." _Drats! Those dreadful, horrible words just seemed to slip out! _He mentally screamed at himself.

Gaz raised a brow, looking at the Irken in slight surprise. "...Yeah. That sounds good. How about after school?" She asked in her cool tone of voice.

"_Today?_ I'll have to move some more _hideous_ experiments around, but yeah. That sounds..._good._" Zim replied, confused as to why he was so excited this human would be coming back to his base.

"Alright." Gaz quietly answered as she walked out the door, looking back at him.

The Irken smiled and waved with certain giddiness, then awkwardly slammed the door shut...

Gaz smiled to herself. _"Weirdo."_ She quietly said before walking off, her smile now fading to a determined scowl as she thought back to her dream with Azel. Though she theorized the locket was haunted by her ghost, she needed more clarity. Though she believed in the paranormal, she didn't know much about the subject, but something had to be done before this could get any worse. Otherwise, she might not be able to go back to his base or talk to Zim again. Or play his stash of awesome video games. And as much as she hated to admit, she could get hurt. Azel most likely wanted her gone from Zim's life, but at this point, the goth girl refused to budge. She wanted answers, and she wanted them NOW. And she knew right where to go...

Zim sighed as he slid behind the door, now sitting on the floor of his base. It had been an hour since she departed. He felt it, to his disgust...He _missed_ having intelligent company in his presence. Invaders weren't supposed to need anyone, yet something felt..._missing_ when she wasn't around. He felt _lonely_. He liked her _dark, wicked_ presence. He liked that she listened to him attentively and with interest, he loved that she was smart and understood scientific concepts. He loved that he found someone to share his violent video games with, and well as a hatred of germs and other humans. She somehow invoked a certain fondness in him, that almost made him dependent on her companionship, her loyalty. He actually _wanted_ her company, mostly because she just seemed to understand him. He started to crave it. She woke up feelings in him that he hadn't felt in a very long time. It made him feel great when she was around, but when she_ wasn't_...things just seemed so.._dull._ He _missed_ her. He cursed her for making him feel this way about a human, but if he were to feel friendship and loyalty emotions towards any one of them...

It might as well be Gaz Membrane...

* * *

_I made Gaz's latest nightmare to parallel the very real nightmare she gave Iggins years ago. XD_

_Aw! Zim and Gaz's friendship is growing!_

_And Azel isn't going away anytime soon...though Gaz wants to take care of the problem..._

_Thanks for reading! Till next time!_


	5. Lost

_Hey everybody! Apologies for lack of updates, but I've been really busy between work and holidays and all. Thanks for reading my stuff!_

_Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Thank you! I thought it would be interesting if a formidable enemy tried to use the same tactic on her. There will be more interaction between them, and I couldn't resist Gir giving Gaz an awful "makeover" for Zim. XD_

_Invader Johnny: You may be right about Karma! Thank you! Gir would love to keep Gaz, and we'll see if you're right about Gaz living in the Base._

_RandomDragon 2.0: Yep, Gaz isn't one to just give up...whether she goes about the situation properly will be another story though...XD agreed, he really does!_

_Guest: I've been getting so many cool, interesting theories, and yours is one of them! As the story progresses, we'll see who has the right theory. :)_

_DamyDark: Zim and Gaz were surprised to find out they actually have some stuff in common, and as this progresses they will find out much more._

_Doroidityss: XD XD That's alright! I read both comments and laughed my ass off! Loved it! And thank you so much!_

_Just a warning, this chapter's pretty short. __Okay, I'll shut the hell up now and get on with the story! _

_~Sammi._

* * *

Zim still sat with his back against the front door of his Base, pondering a conundrum which he had now gotten himself into. The Irken silently struggled with the concept of a warm friendship with the human female. _No_. Invaders needed _no one_...yet he couldn't deny the annoying, _persistent_ feeling...the _loneliness_, the isolation due to his mission. While his opinion of Gaz had literally changed overnight, and even softened for her over their emotional bonding, he felt it was improper. She was another race for one. Two, even if she were Irken, she didn't hold a high ranking military background like he did...something which was upheld on Irk. Generally, friends and comrades had the same sort of jobs at the same or very similar ranks... And that certainly wasn't the case here...However, he was stationed on _Earth_ now, not Irk...

Isolation was expected on such an important mission. He was living on an enemy planet filled with humans; with those who weren't his own race...The only interactions he had on a daily basis was with: Gir, who was completely insane and a dysfunctional minion; Dib, who wanted to see him get dissected more than anything. Miss Bitters, who didn't give a damn about anything. And that horrible stalker, _Keef_...(Insert cringe here). Basically, either crazy or negative attention. He only had spoken to Gaz once in awhile before the incident, and never about anything too important. As for interaction with other Irkens; he hadn't seen his comrade Skoodge in years, though in Zim's eyes he was just a gullible doofus. And his Tallest were available to speak with less and less frequently. Gaz was the only intelligent company he had in years on the miserable planet, he was actually able to have decent conversations with her...however, realizing his sudden need for her presence, realizing that he _missed_ her...he felt he had to put a stop to this before they would become even closer, before his desire for her company would grow and become _dependent_ on it...

"I AM _ZIM!_ I CAN _EASILY_ FIND OTHER FRIENDS!" Zim suddenly shouted aloud in both frustration and overconfidence as he finally stood up in front of the door.

_"Ughhh_...Keep telling yourself that." His computer chimed in an annoyed but blatantly honest voice.

_"Silence!_ Why do I even _pay_ you?!" Zim angrily shouted back to the computer.

"You _don't_ pay me..._at all!"_ The computer responded.

"Huh...how about that..." The Irken responded, scratching his head. "Anyways, computer, I need you to find a list of all the other Invaders and high ranking Elites! When you do, call each one of them via video transmission!" The ruby eyed Irken eagerly ordered.

_"Ughhhh_...Yes, master..." The computer begrudgingly answered. "But I don't understand why you think you need other friends. It seems you've made a genuine one last night after you bonded with-"

"She's a HUMAN! Don't be _ridiculous!_ I don't _need_ her! Now go find me some other Irkens to impress with my greatness!" Zim ordered, abruptly cutting him off, not wanting to talk about Gaz any further...

While Zim was having some form of sudden social crisis, Gaz was facing a dilemma of her own...The nightmare of the dead, decayed Irken replayed in her head for most of her walk home, flashbacks of the ghost clung to her waking memory. She knew she needed to do something about it, and fast. However, she almost _wished_ Zim knew about it. She hated keeping Azel a secret, but she knew if she didn't, she knew how two possible scenarios would play out. The first one being that naturally Zim wouldn't believe her, and consider that she was just trying to strike him in a vulnerable place. He may even perceive it as a threat towards him, and flip out, as Zim was known for being angry and impulsive. The second one being, that even if he did believe her, it would mean that Azel isn't completely gone, which could spiral him back into a never ending depression, and even worse, knowing she was technically out there, reaching out, with no chance of bringing her back. In each case, she didn't have a trace of evidence to back up a seemingly outrageous claim other than a bruise, which could be passed off as anything. And what bothered her more, was that in any case Zim wouldn't have the _closure_ he deserved about Azel. She decided that the best thing to do at the moment was to keep quiet about it and see if she could learn more information on the subject, before she would jump into a decision. Unless she had some form of proof it was happening, she wasn't going to get him worked up over a paranormal occurrence for which she had no evidence...the last thing she wanted to be called was a _Dib._..

Speaking of the large headed brother, she approached her house, hesitantly walking to the doorstep. Before she could open the door, it was flung open by a petrified and now angry Dib.

"Gaz?! Where _were_ you?! I was about ready to call the cops!" Dib shouted in a worried voice, putting his cellphone back in his pocket, now relieved that she was home. It was the longest she had disappeared for, and then overnight to top it all off. He looked at her, noticing she looked tired, like she hadn't slept much. Her hair was kind of a mess like she was lying down somewhere, and her clothing was all wrinkled as he inspected her for any signs of harm.

_"Long story..."_ She told him as she reverted to her usual grumpy tone of voice, looking tired.

"Are you alright?...You look a _mess_..." Her older brother asked, also noting of her unusual disheveled appearance.

"I'm _fine,_ Dib. I just got locked out of the house..." The dark girl informed him. She was about to call him a dweeb, but thanks to her encounter with Zim, and learning how he didn't have anyone who gave a crap about him, she realized something...She was kinda thankful she had a family member that gave a damn about her, even if he did get on her last nerve sometimes. Now all she had to do was bring up where she was at the exact way she had planned...

Suddenly, to her surprise, Dib did something that he hadn't done since they were kids...he gave her a hug...and it was _awkward._ He was just relieved to see that she at least made it home.

"God, Gaz. Next time just call and say something." Her older brother told her, as he released her from his brief hug and breathed a sigh of relief.

"You and Dad were already in bed." She reminded him in an irritated tone.

"Why were you even outside the house in the first place? Where did you go?" Dib asked with some suspicion, raising a brow and adjusting his glasses attentively.

"You know that necklace you and Zim were fighting about last night?..." The dark girl reluctantly started off, already bracing herself from a potential grating lecture from Dib.

"Yes...Let me guess? _You_ found it?" The paranormal investigator responded, already not happy with the direction this conversation was taking.

"Yeah. I found the _stupid_ necklace. I went to Zim's Base to drop it off so he would stop trying to break in the house. When I got back, the crappy facial recognition glitched and I got locked out." The dark girl tried to explain in a succinct way, also avoiding any dead give away details.

"You went to his Base?! What happened? Did he _see_ you?" Dib demanded to know, nearly jumping out of his skin at the mere mention of his little sister going to the alien monster's house.

"Yeah. _Nothing_ happened. Just put it by the doorstep and left." She coolly answered, trying to avoid a long lecture.

"How'd you make it past his gnomes? And why did a security system that was built by _Dad_ himself, glitch and lock you out?" Dib asked, narrowing his eyes slightly because of a feeling his sister wasn't being completely honest with him.

"His stupid gnomes never went off! And I DON'T _KNOW_, DIB! Technology can glitch at _any_ given time, even something made by _Dad."_ The dark girl defensively shouted, now glaring at her brother as a way to intimidate him to back off on questioning her further. However, Dib wasn't complete finished with his interview.

Dib sighed in frustration. "Okay. Even if that did happen, where did you go after you were locked out?" He had to ask, although he had a bad gut feeling he already knew the answer deep down. He just didn't want to hear himself say it...

"I went back to _Zim's..."_ The goth girl admitted, nearly giving her older brother a heart attack on the spot.

"WHY?! Of all the places you could go, or instead of calling me to let you in, why on _Earth_ would you _willingly_ go to ZIM'S HOUSE! HE'S CRIMINALLY INSANE!" Her older brother shouted, now imagining all the horrors Gaz must have had to endure before escaping his enemy's clutches. "Are you CRAZY, GAZ?!"

This now fired up the goth, enraging her, both due to her lack of choices and discovering a side to Zim no one else could ever know about. "Gee, Dib, I forgot I had LOTS of _choices_... _Let's see_...It was either get _attacked_ by Dad's _crappy_ security system, sleep on a park bench surrounded by a bunch of _insane, rabid_ hobos poking me with sticks...Or maybe sleep over at a friend's house, since you know I have SO MANY of THOSE... or go to _stupid_ Zim's house!" Gaz fired back in her usual biting sarcasm, trying to make a point.

Dib looked at her, stunned. While he didn't like her staying over at Zim's, he realized how much worse the first two choices were...and how sadly (and understandably), the third option wasn't there for her at all. _"O-oh..."_ He made a face, still cringing at the fact she spent the evening with a psychotic alien. _"Sorry..."_ He reluctantly admitting, feeling bad she had to choose a lesser evil here. And he knew it was bad if she felt safer with an enemy. "Didn't he_ threaten_ you...or try to destroy you...?" He curiously inquired.

"No. He saw me drop his necklace off. He was glad to have it back. I caught him in a good mood and asked if I could crash on his sofa for the night. He said "yeah" and I told him if he made a lot of noise or did anything stupid that I would tear his limbs off and beat him with them." She summarized in her usual dark tone, embellishing the truth.

"Okay. Let me get this straight. You were in Zim's base and you managed to scare him into letting you stay, and you did _NOTHING_ to stop his plans for world domination?!" Dib asked in a crazy manner, even slightly jealous he didn't get the perfect opportunity to infiltrate his enemy's base and destroy his operation from the inside out.

This made the goth girl scoff. "What _plans?!_ All he did was _clean!"_ She shouted in frustration, feeling very annoyed by now.

"Seriously?" Dib asked, in somewhat of a disbelief. He knew Zim, and was aware of the fact that he detested 'Earth germs', so it kinda made sense.

_"Yes!_ If you don't believe me, here's a picture." She bluntly stated, pulling up the silly photo of Zim dressed in ridiculous germ gear.

"He just _let_ you take a picture of him?" Dib asked, raising an eyebrow. Though he had to admit, that picture of Zim looked hilarious!

_"No._ Of course not. I pretended to delete the backup and he fell for it." She admitted. Yes, it was a dirty trick, but she figured she needed some ammunition in case he decided to secretly store the embarrassing photo he took of her...

"...That's...actually pretty_ boring._..and _anticlimactic_. And not important..." The older brother replied in a confused but more calm tone.

"Yeah, _exactly. And you would think cleaning isn't important."_ Gaz replied, pretending that nothing of remote interest had actually taken place there.

"Are you _sure_ he wasn't up to something?" He inquired one last time, just to be safe.

"He _wasn't." _The scary sister grumpily assured him.

"Oh..." He finally said in some form of realization. While he felt more at ease, he felt more shocked than anything to find out his little sister took refuge at the insane alien's house, even letting her guard down and falling asleep while the lizard was nearby. He didn't care if Zim was too busy having his latest germaphobic freak out and scrubbing the floor obsessively all night. The fact of the matter was that Zim was a dangerous, unpredictable enemy who had no regards for human life. Especially the life of a Membrane. Dib secretly cringed at the possibility of Zim taking delight in the opportunity to destroy Gaz while she slept...Yet he didn't. He knew that Gaz had scared him on more than one occasion. He realized the intense fear Gaz managed to strike into the heart of everyone, even a soldier like Zim who had probably seen the horrors of war. But at times Zim would even muster up enough courage to throw thinly veiled insults back at her. If she did scare him into letting her stay at his guarded base, why didn't he try to retaliate? Or at least try to use her as a bargaining chip against him, not unlike a ransom? However, the real question was, why did he grant her just enough hospitality to stay the night, no complaints or threats of destruction? Something was definitely off about this...

"Hey, Dib?" His sister's voice suddenly sounded, breaking Dib out of his state of contemplation.

"Yeah?" He asked, still looking somewhat confused by the outlook of the situation.

The dark girl stalled for a brief few seconds before forcing herself to ask the question of all questions..."I was wondering if I could borrow some of your..._ghost_ books?" She finally inquired, almost cringing that she had to ask Dib for indirect help. She was never one to ask for help. Even if she was hanging off the edge of a steep cliff by her fingernails she would rather pull herself up than ask for anyone else's help. To make matters worse, she dreaded asking Dib about the subject of the paranormal on top of it...

At this, Dib looked puzzled, more or less in disbelief. His mouth was agape, and he stared at her blankly. "Is this a joke?" He inquired, and rather seriously too.

_"I wish_..." She said under her breath. "I just want to know more about _the dead."_ She told him, deadly serious about it.

"Wait, _why?"_ Dib curiously inquired, slightly weirded out by her sudden paranormal interest.

_"I just do."_ Gaz answered, shrugging her shoulders, and concealing the real reason on her sudden interest.

Dib stared at her, almost profoundly. His sister was dark, she loved skulls and she was known for being morbid. And ghosts and dead people weren't too far off from those categories. He felt his lips curl into a wide smile, now ecstatic, and geeking out over her sudden interest."Gaz...you have NO idea how much I ALWAYS wanted to hear that!" He exclaimed, now excited and motivated all at once. "I knew you'd come to see it my way! Let's see, I have over 157 books on ghosts, which consists of obscure lore, as well as most recent knowledge and experiences-"

The gothic sister groaned, face palming. _157 freaking books to look through!_ She angrily thought to herself as Dib rambled. "Okay! Okay...don't get carried away...but I want to look through them ALL." She reluctantly stated.

"Okay! This is great! This is a good start. Um, since we have to get ready for school, I'll go grab a few of my favorite books for you to take along." He said, trying to remain calm and quell his enthusiasm, in fear of scaring her away from the subject completely. He quickly darted upstairs, and to his room, eager to dig through his paranormal library.

Gaz watched him depart. She rolled up her sleeve, inspecting the now worsened, throbbing purplish-green bruise which remained on her wrist...she had hope that something of Dib's might actually work against a dead alien spirit...because if she didn't, she knew it would only become worse from here on out...

After only a few moments, Dib carefully came down the steps with a huge stack of old, dusty looking books, smiling from ear to ear. He handed the stack to Gaz, who groaned, already kind of annoyed at the research that she needed to do...

He joyfully handed her the stack, a bunch of dusty old books that weighed a ton! She reluctantly took them, cramming them into her back pack for reading material at school...

"Don't worry, Gaz! There's more where those came from!" Dib gleefully hummed, as he marched back up the stairs to set the rest of his collection aside for her to browse.

While she needed the knowledge, her stomach growled...She realized she needed food more so at the moment, and headed to the kitchen to make some chocolate chip waffles to eat. After having a good breakfast and taking a shower, she dried her purple hair, getting ready to go to the shithole known as high school. She thought about skipping since she felt exhausted, but she figured if she missed a day after spending the night at Zim's house, Dib would get suspicious and accuse him of infecting her with an alien germ or something equally weird. Plus, she had promised the grieving alien she would see him at school...and she wasn't one to break a promise. Even a small one. She thought it was best to power through, and make the most of it by researching Dib's books during school hours...

At last she was ready, putting her soft black hoodie. She went to tug on the zipper, when she noticed something...off...Her narrowed eyes popped open, quickly feeling around almost frantically, checking her pockets, her eyes darting everywhere as she searched for it...

_"No..."_ She quietly muttered under her breath, realizing it was gone, to her horror...

"NO!" She darkly shouted, this time a little louder. _"NO! NO! NO!"_ She face palmed, and groaned in outright irritation. At this point, she was actually starting to feel stressed out, however, while it was important to her, she realized it would just have to wait, much to her own impatience. But she was forced to prioritize...She bitterly stomped out the door, furiously muttering a few curse words along the way as she headed to school...

A short time later, one distracted, exhausted, furious Gaz made her way to Homeroom, to her first class. She sat down, putting her backpack on the floor and digging through Dib's books. She would not let this stop her. While it bothered the hell out of her, she was stronger. She would just have to worry about it later. Right now was the time for research...

Some more time had passed, and one tired, angry goth girl had her bloodshot eyes on old text. She had been reading the books non-stop through school hours, and in the classrooms. The teachers didn't care for the most part...they either didn't notice, or they were too afraid to confront the scary goth.

While skimming through the ancient texts, she found herself frustrated with the so called solutions... _Are you kidding me? That's how you keep a stupid ghost away?! Burn sage, smudge to purify energy in the room...sounds like bullshit...Place copper in the four corners of your room to ward off evil...makes no sense...pour a circle of salt around your bed for protection?!...Place iron in your room to keep evil spirits at bay! Use mirrors...place them around your bedroom to ward off evil spirits...Evil can't stand to look at itself in a mirror. It will also remind spirits that they are deceased... This crap's supposed to work against evil spirits?! _She angrily thought to herself...it was ridiculous sounding. _Using sage, salt, metals, and mirrors to get rid of a ghost!_ She thought.

..._What's this...if any of these methods do not work, and the spirit does not move on, an exorcism ritual may be needed to remove any spiritual attachments from an object, place or person...Hmm...might as well try some of this stupid crap. It can't hurt. But would it even work on the bitch? She's not a human spirit, she's Irken..._She reasoned, not that she really believed in any of the solutions, except for a complete removal of the spirit, if needed. However, while she didn't like that Azel was trying to attack her, she knew Azel and Zim had unfinished business...That's when something else struck her...something worrying...

Zim didn't even come to school today...she figured he was late at first, but hours had passed... Sick feelings of worry crept their way into her gut, as much as she tried to ignore them. It was unlike him, especially since he told her he would be there today. Zim wasn't necessarily known for keeping his word, but he did seem sincere about it. So why would he be so flaky all of a sudden?

She continued to read the books, almost relentlessly, pushing the sick feelings down and locking them up so to speak. She was clearly frustrated as she her mind seemed to wade through pages of mental muck that felt kind of foreign to her, that didn't make much sense. Reason being, she felt submersed into a world of the paranormal, which she didn't quite understand. It angered her, because she seemed to be a natural at just about anything, and she had good problem solving skills. But this was just bizarre. It was Dib's world alright, something in which he understood and thrived on. A subject in which he _excelled_ in...and one where she _didn't._ While it was bad enough considering the possibility that Dib might be better at something than her, it was worse yet knowing she couldn't exactly go to him for direct help. She never felt so lost as she muttered a few more curse words right in class. Her classmates stared at her, but no one was willing to say a word. Not if they wanted to keep their limbs...

_Are you kidding me? 'Why do ghosts haunt?' Really, Dib?_ She grumbled to herself as she skipped over the book, chucking it to the floor. _I need a decent defense strategy! _She thought to herself as she came upon a certain symbol in the old book...

"A spirit trap?" She lightly mumbled...and out loud too.

_Oh great! Now I'm even talking to myself like Dib!_ She mentally complained. However, she was more intrigued by the different finding.

_Could it actually work? _

* * *

_Zim's still reluctant to form a stronger bond with Gaz. He's almost afraid of any new feelings coming to the surface, yet still kind of arrogant to the point where he thinks he should have superior friends...we'll see how that turns out for him..._

_Dib is still a little suspicious about Gaz spending the night with his enemy, but he is happy that she has a newfound interest in the paranormal..._

_And Gaz now lost something very important to her...and Zim didn't make it to school..._

_By the way, the findings from Gaz's research on repelling ghosts are based on actual beliefs. Salt is thought to be purifying and __protective, as is sage, etc. Since these are actual beliefs I'm not using them in my fic in a way to offend anyone. I think they sound cool, but the real question in this instance is will they work on an Irken spirit?_

_Again, sorry for a short chapter but I can promise it will get more interesting from here on out. _


	6. Found

_Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Yeah, Zim really is trying to wrap his mind around forming a friendship with a human. Thank you. Gaz is trying her hardest to figure out the right thing to do to remedy the situation._

_Invader Johnny: I agree. His need for companionship goes against everything he has been taught, and Gaz really did have an effect on him. The solutions Gaz has researched are unusual, and it will indeed be intriguing to see how it goes and the effect it has on Zim as well._

_IrkenStormCloud: Yeah, they both feel as if they don't need anybody, but I think that's what sets them apart from others and kinda draws them together. She is in a real pickle! And as for what's lost, well, it is in this chapter :)_

_Another short chapter. I had a really long chapter planned, but I thought the length took away from some of the impact of certain scenes, so I split them and gave them some more detail. Alright, I'll quit blabbing and go on with this chapter._

_~Sammi._

* * *

Zim found himself feeling overwhelmed with frustration after numerous video transmissions with other invaders and elites were promptly cut short. Nonetheless, confident Zim carried on with the list of Irkens he wished to strike up a comradeship with.

"Ah! Invader Spleen! How have you been, soldier?!" Zim exclaimed with eagerness, though the Invader on the other end of the video transmission looked shocked that he had contacted him.

"Aaahhh! Zim?! How'd you get my number?!" The frightened Invader demanded to know as he helplessly shook in fear for his life.

Zim, however, was oblivious to the soldier's fright. _"I have my ways_...Anyways, I decided to bestow an incredible honor upon you and grace you with my AMAZING presence! So I was just wondering if you and I could talk?" Zim sheepishly asked.

Invader Spleen looked petrified. "Uh...actually I'm busy and I can't talk right now..._or ever_...Goodbye!" He hurriedly answered, ending the transmission.

Zim groaned in frustration at the lack of Spleen's acknowledgement of him. "NEXT!" The impatient Irken loudly demanded.

Another familiar face appeared on the screen within a room of sorts, a female form glaring at him, with a deadly grimace...

_"TAK?!"_ Zim said in both complete surprise and anger. "YOU'RE ALIVE?!"

"ZIM?!" Tak inquired in a bitter yet much surprised tone. Her deep violet eyes focused their deadly gaze upon him, glaring pure, _seething_ hatred. "WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME?!" She shouted in a wild rage, practically shaking with an anger that could not be quelled.

"_I_ THINK THE _REAL_ QUESTION IS WHY DID YOU EVEN _ANSWER_ IF YOU KNEW IT WAS _ME?!_ HUH?!" Zim demanded to know.

"I _DIDN'T_ PICK UP! My computer automatically answered the call! What for, _I don't know!"_ The failed Invader growled, clenching her gloved hands into fists.

_"Yeah, sure_ use THAT excuse! You obviously answered because you're SECRETLY IN LOVE WITH ME!" Zim said in an insane, accusing tone.

"You're joking! _You're PATHETIC! _Are you really _that_ sad and lonely you that you feel the need to start chatting with enemies instead of just talking to yourself?!" The Irken girl sneered, growing fed up with the annoyance.

This caught Zim off guard briefly, seeing that she actually accurately pinpointed the problem and confronted him about it. "...You're the PATHETIC ONE!" Zim fired back.

_"WHY_ ARE YOU CALLING ME, YOU _DISGUSTING_ MORON?!" Tak finally snapped, demanding an answer for the seemingly random call.

Zim paused for a brief few seconds, before he realized his computer must have automatically called her by mistake, since she was technically on the Elites' list...

"Uh, because this is a PRANK CALL!...YEP, THAT'S RIGHT! ZIM'S _FAR_ SUPERIOR TO YOU! IN YOUR FACE, TAK!" The ruby eyed Irken quickly declared in a last minute brain storm, enraging her greatly before he hung up. He stood there for a few seconds before chuckling arrogantly to himself. "Heh, heh...She's _still_ infatuated with me. Who _wouldn't_ be?!" He said to himself in amusement.

"That...was a disaster..." The computer declared.

"COMPUTER! WHY DID YOU CALL TAK?! YOU KNOW SHE'S MY ENEMY!" Zim yelled in a scolding tone of voice to the A. I.

"She was still on the list of Elites you recommended calling." The computer explained.

"But you could have _skipped_ her!" Zim emphasized.

"Yeah, I could have..." The computer stated, almost withholding a chuckle, to Zim's annoyance.

"NEXT!" Zim loudly demanded.

The computer groaned, before attempting to contact the next Irken Invader. However, a few hours later left Zim baffled.

Zim stood in front of the screen, his ruby eyes growing large, as Invader Skutch abruptly ended the transmission. "Ugh! That was the 153rd one to leave in a hurry! The Tallest must be keeping them very busy!" Zim complained to his computer, feeling angry, and even snubbed, but still in denial about the latter.

"Yeah, _that's_ why." The computer fired back in its usual sarcastic attitude.

"Computer, who's next on the list?" Zim inquired.

"Invader Skoodge." The A.I. answered.

"Oh...Skoodge! He's kind of annoying and brags a lot about his lousy Slaughtering Rat People planet. And he's still REALLY short! Nonetheless he's still a decent comrade. My childhood friend. Even _he_ can recognize my greatness and progress with my mission. _Call him." _The overly confident Irken directed.

"Ughhhhh...Okay, master." The computer lazily replied, pulling up Skoodge's number on the screen. On the other end of the line, Invader Skoodge sat on a comfy couch alongside Invader Tenn, happily sharing some nachos together. Skoodge nearly choked when he saw an incoming transmission from Zim. He and Tenn exchanged a look of panic. A few moments passed, as a worried Invader Skoodge decided it was for the best if he didn't answer the phone. Though Zim was one of the only friends he ever had, every time Zim involved Skoodge in one of his crazy schemes, it usually ended badly for the latter.

"PICK UP, SKOODGE! I _KNOW_ YOU'RE THERE! I CAN HEAR YOU CRUNCHING ON NACHOS!" Zim screamed, throwing a sandwich at the screen in a burst of anger.

They both abruptly stopped crunching on the nachos. "Uh...Skoodge isn't here right now...leave a message at the tone...BEEP." He nervously said, pretending he was a voice mail...which only served to irritate Zim further. His own childhood best friend had enough audacity to ignore him! The Almighty Zim!

"WHO'S NEXT?!" Zim impatiently demanded to know, now shaking in anger.

"Invader Grapa, Sir." Computer responded, calling the Invader's number.

"Good. Grapa was a _total failure_ at the academy." Zim lightly commended, waiting for the Invader to pick up.

Surprisingly, Grapa answered. _"Zim_...what do _you_ want?" Grapa asked, both out of smugness and curiosity as he sat upon a throne, sipping a fancy drink, as a servant brought him a rather elaborate meal on a fancy platter.

"Hello Invader Grapa!" Zim saluted, eager to see him, especially more so since he was one of the few that actually answered. "I, uh, I'm just calling to see how you're doing..." Zim somewhat awkwardly stated. Though Zim could be pretty extroverted and talkative, trying to form a sudden friendship on the spot was more difficult than he previously thought.

Grapa's serious face now contorted into a demented smile after hearing this. "I'm doing great. Conquered my planet, one of the most vital planets to the Empire. Made the Tallest and the Empire proud. I have a smart, functional SIR unit by my side. Bought a nice place. Have enough money to buy whatever I want. I've found my life partner and soon we're going to have a few smeets. They're developing in the Smeetery right now." He bragged, deliberately throwing it in Zim's face.

"Huh...That's..._great."_ Zim politely said, feeling somewhat dumbfounded by his success.

"Yeah, I am pretty great. So how's banishm- Eh, I mean, _Earth_ treating you?" Grapa inquired, trying not to snicker.

At this, Zim felt a slight twinge of anger, though he still decided to answer his question. "Actually, I'm almost ready to doom this ball of filth and dirt once and for all! It's been pretty interesting, eh, what with all my highly important scientific research and experiments for the past several years. Ordered by the Tallest, of course, since they recognize my incredible _brilliance_ in these matters!" Zim excitedly told him, greatly embellishing the truth. Not only for Grapa's sake but also for his own.

Grapa just smirked at the Irken's conceited lie. "Uh huh...So in other words, you're busy tinkering with test tubes like a coward in a lab and NOT conquering your planet like the warrior you say you are. Word on the Massive has it that you've _befriended_ a few of the human inhabitants..." He pointed out, getting amusement of trying to hurt the Irken in any way he could.

"LIIIIIEEEESSSSS!" Zim blurted out defensively, a seething rage now starting to boil to the suface.

_"Easy, Zim!_" Grapa said with a chuckle, subtly mocking him. "So you're friends with some _creepy_ girl and some guy with a grotesquely large head!..." Grapa explained, trying so hard not to laugh.

"LIES! ALL OF IT!" Zim angrily yelled in a huff, now getting fed up, regretting that he had called this jerk. "They're my _enemies!" _He explained.

Grapa scoffed. "You're forgetting something, Zim. I was there the day two humans appeared on your transmission just a few weeks ago, when you _called_ the Massive!"

"THAT WAS_ ONLY_ BECAUSE THE BIG HEADED DIB BROKE INTO MY BASE ACCUSING ME OF CLONING BIGFEETS AND THE SCARY SISTER CAME TO RETRIEVE HIM!" The ruby eyed Irken screamed, his eyes wild with unconstrained anger.

Grapa just laughed at the hurt and pain he seemed to inflict on Zim's ego. "Ha! The _ugly, creepy,_ human female with the purple hair! You sure have a _thing_ for creepy, ugly girls..." He implied, trying to get under his skin.

Zim growled, knowing what he was getting at. He wouldn't stand for Grapa's insults at Azel or even Gaz. _"Watch it!" _He warned him in a menacing tone, his eyes now narrowing, his deadly focus not budging from the annoying, well established Invader on the screen.

"Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself here. You're STILL un-partnered?" Grapa inquired, amused at the amount of frustration he was causing to the exiled former Invader.

"Well-_Yes._ _Azel_ was my one and only! I don't NEED a partner since I'm focused on my glorious career!" Zim shouted, now furious as he sneered at the other Irken.

"Ah it's for the better. I couldn't imagine you having smeets, little _defective_ monstrous spawn genetically related to _you_ running around, mucking up the Universe!" Grapa told him in some form of mean spirited delight.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK! IF I WERE TO HAVE SMEETS THEY WOULD BE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! AND WAY BETTER THAN YOURS!" He screamed, his emotions now thrashing about within him, causing him to shake with wild anger.

"Yeah, you still do the loud screaming thing, heh...Yeah, living life as a single, banished, loser with a dysfunctional robot in a crummy cardboard box home isn't so bad... Especially since you brought such great shame upon our Empire!" Grapa semi nervously still continued to hurl insults at the exiled Irken on his screen.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO SUCKS! YOU AND YOUR STUPID UGLY HOUSE AND MISSHAPEN, REVOLTING HEAD AND YOUR SOON TO BE HIDEOUS, DROOLING DUMB SMEETS!" Zim screamed in a fit of rage, picking up a chair and throwing it at the screen, and cracking it, scaring Grapa in the process, so much so that he fell off his chair. He scampered back up off the floor, almost forgetting just how dangerous and crazy the exile truly is. He quickly hit a button, ending the transmission promptly.

Zim seethed for a moment, taking several deep breaths before trying to regain his composure. "So computer, who's next?" He asked.

"Are you freaking kidding me?! After that fiasco?!" Computer asked, almost in disbelief at Zim's fruitless efforts.

"Call more Irkens! NOW! WHO'S NEXT?!" Zim demanded, rubbing the sides of his head to try to ease any frustration.

"Invader _Zee,_ sir." Computer responded.

"Ah, Zee! She's a fine Invader! Skilled, well composed, smart, _social_...Call her." Zim ordered, feeling hopeful about her.

"Ughhhhh...Yes, master." Computer reluctantly answered.

Within a few seconds, the TV flashed a message which Computer read aloud. "Blocked."

"OH COME ON! She blocked me?! It must be a mistake!" Zim shouted, now visibly upset.

"It's _not._ She took many precautions to block any form of communication from you specifically, just like the other 90% you've contacted today." The computer informed him in a factual tone.

"GAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Zim now shouted in an uproar, releasing any repressed rage at his fellow Irkens that ignored him...Suddenly, he felt Gir tugging on his shirt. Zim looked down at the little bot.

"Don't worry, master! You still gots me!...And the dancing weenies! Dancing weenies!" Gir said in a brief nanosecond of clarity, followed by his usual insanity. He then proceeded to smack himself in the face with a dead goldfish.

However, while being sweet, this did nothing to make Zim feel any better. In fact, it made him feel _worse_ knowing that Gir was his one and only friend...mostly because Gir was completely insane. The alien slammed his head against the wall, brimming with frustration, and maybe feeling the faintest hint of betrayal.

_No one available to talk to me! The nerve! ME The amazing Zim! They'll be sorry once I take over this filthy planet once and for all! I won't stop there! The Empire in its entirety would do much better under my rule...Then they'll be forced to acknowledge me and not block me! _Zim thought to himself in frustration.

He sighed, involuntarily thinking back to someone who didn't ignore him or treat him like dirt. _Azel was ALWAYS there for me. Heh, if only she had lived to see my Earth mission and all these smelly, stupid, dirty humans. She would have gotten the chance to meet Gir and Mini Moose, though knowing her she wouldn't have liked Gir so much...We both could have laughed at Dib's enormous head of smell. She could have met Miss Bitters, that horrible rage wrinkle...that stalker Keef...Heh, she would have destroyed him in the most horrible way possible!...heh, her and the Gaz human would probably be on good terms with one another...she'd be quite happy to know that Gaz-human, much like myself, truly appreciates the quality she's crafted into each one of her video games...Yep, they'd be on good terms with each other...Azel would've be amazed to find out the Tallest selected me for such an important mission on a mystery planet at the farthest reaches of the galaxy...Ah, I remember that one training mission we had together..._

He started to think of..._her_ again. His mused thoughts drifted to elsewhere, a desolate yet safe space, as his current situation seemed to fade, and his mental focus brought him back to a certain vivid memory...

Invader training: Planet Dooq:

A taller female Irken with violet eyes and curly antennae proudly stood before a crowd mostly composed of shorter Irkens. A top military training specialist, survivalist, and strategist, Commander Nova.

Among the crowd of Invaders in Training stood a few familiar faces, such as an attentive Skoodge. Further away from the crowd, Zim happily stood by, though his focus wasn't entirely on the new mission; he now stood beside the newest trainee who fought her way through the ranks...Invader in Training _Azel._

The horrifying Irken was standing away from the crowd, mostly because almost everyone within that crowd had inched away from her out of fear...except for Zim, who was obviously secretly infatuated with the slightly shorter girl.

Azel focused on Commander's words, soaking up every ounce of knowledge she could get. The overconfident Zim only paid half of his attention to what Commander Nova was explaining, as he was more so focused on Azel as he was helpless to smile giddily at her.

The Commander continued her instructions for the lot of Invaders in Training.

"And so that surmises emergency survival skills training. Remember, even though you're strong, superior Irkens, your Pak CANNOT save you every time, so it's absolutely, _DIRELY_, IMPORTANT, that you all prove to be _adaptable_ survivalists in a range of foreign, _dangerous_ environments...STARTING WITH THIS ONE!" The Commander explained as she motioned to planet Dooq's unforgiving, barren, desert like environment; which was one of the toughest areas to survive.

"OOH! PICK ME!" Zim suddenly shouted with much enthusiasm.

"Didn't you just hear what I said, Invader in training Zim?! We're ALL going to be doing this!" Commander Nova shouted.

Azel just smacked her head, while the rest of the trainees stared at him.

"Ha ha! I knew already knew that! I was...just _testing_ to see if _little_ Azel was paying any attention!" Zim quickly covered in a teasing manner, playfully patting the slightly shorter girl on the shoulder.

The rest of the class would normally laugh at a remark directed toward a shorter Irken, however, they instead remained silent and simultaneously scooted away from them both.

"Call me _'little'_ one more time..." She grumbled, her carmine eyes shooting a glare of disapproval at Zim...whose ruby eyes seemed to light up in delight at her dangerous attitude.

"OKAY! Let's not focus on Azel's height, no matter how _weird, scary or short_ she is!" Commander Nova poorly corrected, making Zim snicker. "Today's lesson is about the brutal, unforgiving elements of nature! And how to survive them! For this project, I will select a partner for each of you to work with! Then the selected pairs will work as a team to survive for a week in this _harsh, unforgiving, horrible_ nightmare land without succumbing to starvation, dehydration, heat exhaustion, getting eaten by wild carnivores, parasites, or brain worms! You will each use your communicator to radio back with me and report your progress or lack there of. You can choose to quit at any time, and one of our androids will locate and rescue you, bring you back to base camp. For whatever reason, if you do quit, you'll forfeit the opportunity to become an Invader and have to retake this class. Remember, this is no longer simulation, soldiers! This is the REAL DEAL! Any questions?!" The Commander loudly explained, expecting any follow up questions.

Skoodge happened to raise his hand.

"Yes! You with the stained shirt!" Commander Nova pointed, acknowledging him.

"Uh, you said we'd be working in pairs for this...so what happens if one partner would quit but the other still wants to keep going?" The short, plump Irken asked, his crimson eyes showing some worry of a second person slowing him down.

"GOOD QUESTION, INVADER IN TRAINING _SLUDGE!"_ Commander enthusiastically responded.

"Uh, it's _Skoodge."_ He politely corrected.

"Sludge here has a point! While you're partnered for safety reasons, so you can have someone else watching your back in this hostile, unfamiliar environment, you're not always going to have that on an enemy planet! If you're partner quits or dies, you can either go solo, forfeit along with them, or die by their side!" She informed them. "Now, time to select partners for each of you!"

...After a few moments of selecting partners and regions for nearly everyone...the insane Invader in training Zim and ever so creepy Azel weren't chosen for anyone...they were dead last...

Commander Nova smirked at them, amused, as she had deliberately saved the worst for last..."Well, looks like you two are _dead last! The leftovers! The rejects! The losers!_ The unwanted _thorns_ splintering our skulls! The outcasts! The-"

"Hey, can you just _shut up_ and give us the _freaking_ assignment already?! Or is listening to your never ending, mindless _blathering_ some form of _demented_ punishment for the rest of us?" A fired up Azel finally snapped, growing impatient with the barrage of insults. She hated getting picked last, and she hated being made a mockery of for her small stature. She just wanted to get on with this project with minimal insults or drama so she could prove them all wrong.

At this, Commander was rendered speechless, while the rest of the class stood with their mouths agape, quite visibly shocked...except for Zim, who started snickering uncontrollably, which formed into full fledged maniacal laughter.

"Uh...S-sure. You two will be partnered! You will be assigned to the Doom Dunes in the vicious Northwest Region!" Commander Nova informed them, almost happily...

"NORTHWEST! BUT THAT'S THE WORST PART OF THIS STINKING PILE OF DIRT PLANET!" Zim angrily protested, stomping his foot.

"Your problem, _not mine_, Invader in Training Zim! Leave my sight everyone! Let's hope natural selection does its job! Maybe you'll get eaten by a _lizard_ or a hoard of _worms_ or something." Commander quickly stuttered a bitter insult, secretly fearful of the short, creepy female, and not wanting to deal with the other insane, dangerous lunatic alongside of her.

As everyone quickly and rather eagerly left her sight, Azel and Zim both turned to each other. At this point they had known each other for a little while, as they both went to the same training facility. She was Zim's apprentice, and he readily mentored her for a short time...that is, until she worked her way up through the ranks to Invader in Training status, putting her in Zim's class. Both of them had a certain friendliness and respect towards each other, which was evolving into something more, as they grew closer to one another. Though she had been in the class for only a few days, on a positive note they could now spend more time together.

"So...heh heh..." Zim semi nervously chuckled as he stared at her, making her raise her antennae slightly. He felt helpless to smile as he stared at her, as an unfamiliar feeling of extreme happiness seemed to flair up within him whenever the cute girl was in his amazing presence. His Squeedily Spooch was all in knots...

And it seemed to be contagious, as the fierce Azel felt herself succumb to the effects of his charm, she now felt a smile form on her normally emotionless face whenever he was near her, her carmine eyes lighting up. She felt her Squeedily Spooch turn and flip just by glancing at Zim.

"You're still shocked that I'm in this class, _aren't you?"_ She calmly asked him, more or less rhetorically, as she pulled up a map of the dunes of the Northwest Region on her tablet.

"Well, YEAH. I mean...I know you're skilled..._almost_ as skilled as I am. I trained you _myself_...but how on IRK did you _possibly_ get the opportunity to take the test to move up?! That normally takes _YEARS_ to become available, even DECADES!" Zim excitedly inquired, his curiosity getting the better of him.

_"I have my ways..."_ She darkly stated, playfully wiggling her fingers at him in an effort to look playfully spooky. She then turned her attention back at the tablet she held.

Zim couldn't help but to chuckle, but he was still curious. "No, eh, seriously? _How? _The Control Brains are _really_ strict!"

"Does it even _matter?" _She casually responded, deflecting the question, as she shuffled her spiked boots a bit. "I told you; I don't take any crap from anybody, that's how and why I'm here now. I worked really _hard_ for it...that's why I couldn't always grab some Mooshminkies with you after class or go see some movies or blow up some asteroids..." She somewhat explained, subtly deflecting.

"I always assumed that was because of Skoodge kept tagging along wherever I went..." Zim replied, scratching his head.

"Yeah, well, he's not exactly my_ favorite_ person...but since he's paying for the damages, I've laid off the threats..." Azel calmly answered, yet still grimacing about Zim's 'stupid' friend.

Zim just chuckled. "You know, I know we haven't had much time to talk for the past few days...I didn't even get to tell you how proud I am of you..." He admitted, with much respect, and some arrogance. Partially because he felt he could take credit for being her mentor, an excellent mentor, and doing such a wonderful job teaching her his ways and methods. However, he felt genuinely proud of her for her skill alone, and respected her strength.

"That's right, you _didn't."_ Azel reminded him, sparing him a smirk.

"Well, congratulations!..._shorty."_ He playfully told her as he offered her a handshake, giving her a big smile.

She scoffed, placing her hands on her hips and resumed the serious look on her face.

"What? You're _still_ not going to shake my hand?" He asked in amusement as he withdrew his hand from her presence, as he feigned being offended.

"Nope...you _tiny, tiny_ little man." She remarked, throwing his own height back in his face.

Zim smirked at this, realizing what she was doing as she hit him back at an insecurity of his. "Still not as small as _you._.." He stated smugly.

Azel huffed, crossing her arms and narrowing her orb like eyes at him.

"No, seriously...Congratulations. You deserved the promotion..." He said in complete sincerity, still attempting to hold out his hand once more toward him.

She skeptically eyed him, not budging. "You mean the _amazing, supreme, wonderful,_ _almighty_ Zim just paid _me_ a compliment?"

"I'm not going to throw you over my shoulder or anything!" He finally yelled, out of defense.

"Hmm..." She hummed, eyeing him with a hint of suspicion.

"Okay, how about a hug?" He suggested, now opening his arms, and smiling at her.

"Maybe I don't _want_ a hug from you." She playfully added, giggling...which made Zim look dumbfounded for a nanosecond, but then regained his confident composure, realizing she was messing with him.

"Too late!" He quickly said, impulsively wrapping his arms around her for the first time ever, laughing and happily bringing her closer to himself.

This somewhat surprised the unprepared girl, who blinked a few times before becoming comfortable with his warm embrace. Her antennae hung low, where he accidentally brushed against them with his arms when he went in for the hug. She felt her face being overcome with a blush from his mere touch, which deepened when he seemed to nuzzle into the crook of her neck. Though she had secretly admired his physique, it was so different to be able to just feel him pressed against her. So much so, her heart was pounding rapidly, and she felt happiness that made her Squeedily Spooch want to burst, all from a simple hug. She found herself smiling so much that her face hurt as she slowly reciprocated the hug, placing her arms around him and pulling him even closer to herself.

Zim felt the cute girl pulling him closer, holding him tightly as she pressed herself, her deceptively delicate form against his chest. He felt giddy just by her touch, especially when he felt her chin graze his shoulder. He felt the rather surprising light, feminine touch of her fingers glide across his back, causing his Squeedily Spooch to squirm in delight. His heart was pounding by now, excited that he could finally hold her close to himself. A deep blush consumed his normally arrogant face, as he also took a brief moment to make sure the rest of his fellow classmates would see them together. To subtly let the rest of the guys know that she was _Zim's_...or would hopefully be...

"BUNNY!" A shrill voice loudly screamed in Zim's face, snapping him out of his moment of nostalgia, damn near scaring the crap out of him.

"AAAAHHHH!" Zim yelled, startled by his robot minion who was babbling incoherently in his face. He blinked slowly a few times.

"What is it, Gir?! Can't you see I'm busy having flashbacks?!" He angrily yelled.

"Okey Dokey! But I founds this on the floor! It was by the bean! Do dee doo dee do!" The little bot sounded in a sing song voice, bouncing around a small metal piece in his claws in front of Zim's face, along with said 'bean'.

Zim raised his antennae in curiosity, gently grabbing and holding Gir's arms still so he could get a better look at what the SIR unit was playing with...

He was unhappy once he saw the 'bean', which turned out to be his Squeedily Spooch locket in one claw, and in the other claw he held something else...

Zim squinted his eyes as he analyzed the tiny piece of silver metal...which then widened into worried ruby orbs once he realized what it was, and more importantly, where it came from...A silver metal skull in the shape of an Earthly organism known as a _rabbit, _with two bones forming an X shape beneath the skull...He distinctly remembered it was part of the zipper on Gaz-human's black hooded sweater...

"Oooh! She MAD! The angry lady says yous gonna have to PICK ONE!" Gir happily told his master, holding up both objects.

_Angry lady?_

Zim's eye began to twitch wildly, a feeling of disturbing _unease_ surged through his chilled body. It was unsettling. His mind was trying to digest the insane robot's words combined with the little metal bunny skull belonging to Gaz, placed alongside of the Squeedily Spooch locket...

* * *

_Zim's attempt to make other friends didn't go over so well. _

_And Gir interrupted an important flashback of Azel and Zim...only to say something spooky...as he found the item Gaz lost..._


	7. Sick

_Giving a shout out to my readers/reviewers! Thank you guys so much! Ya'll rock! :)_

_Erin Tesden: Thank you! More flashbacks of the past are to come, along with some present day stuff._

_Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Good eye! Thank you! The scene with the other Irkens was just there to kinda remind Zim that they don't really want to be bothered. I might just continue the rest of that flashback :)_

_Invader Johnny: I agree it's no surprise to anyone, except maybe Zim. None of the other Irkens want to be bothered with him, which will give him more motivation to talk with Gaz. :)_

_IrkenStormCloud: I randomly threw Tak in, and Grapa acting like a jerk towards Zim did fire him up, especially his insults about Azel and Gaz. Eh, Gir will be Gir XD LOL we'll have to see what Zim does with it...Thank you!_

_JinxMarshmallow: Thank you :) Greatly Appreciated._

_Time for me to shut up and get on with the story ~Sammi._

* * *

The Irken stared at his SIR unit, wide eyed, as something particularly small but unsettling emerged in his insane ramblings...

_"What?!_ What _lady,_ Gir?!" Zim asked in complete surprise, an odd feeling of unease from the bot's eerie words crept into his Squeedily Spooch.

"I dunno. She said you had to pick! YOUUU! PICK!" Gir said, before blankly staring behind Zim.

After hearing this, Zim knew what he was talking about as he stared at both pieces of jewelry deeply associated with each of them...

_Choosing either Azel or Gaz..._

Gir may be crazy, but this was taking it too far this time. Something wasn't quite right. Zim turned the little bot's attention back to him. "Listen, Gir, this is _very_ important..._who_ is this lady?" Zim inquired, narrowing his eyes as a serious look spread across his face.

"Uhhhh..." Gir droned, as some spittle ran down the side of his mouth.

Though Zim had his suspicions, there was no other female at the Base besides Gaz. "Come on, Gir! _Think!_ I'll buy you some Girly Ranger cookies!" He said, offering a bribe in an attempt to refresh his memory.

"OOOH! COOKIES!" He happily shouted. "Uhhh...Well, it _wasn't_ Mary." Gir said, really trying to think hard.

"Ma-ry?" Zim pronounced in question. "The female with the long brown hair from school?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

"No! Not that Mary! Crazy Mary with the glasses and big greasy head! She smells like a dog!" Gir happily responded.

Zim just smacked his head. "Gir, first of all, you mean _Dib._ Secondly, Dib isn't a female!" The Irken corrected, throwing his hands in the air.

"Well, it wasn't him...Hmm..." Gir hummed, trying real hard to think of the lady.

"Gir, be honest with me...Was it the human female with the purple hair that stayed overnight? Did _she_ tell you to say that?" He sternly demanded to know, looking directly into his eyes as he analyzed the robot for the smallest sign he could be lying...

"GAZZY!" Gir happily shrieked. "Nope. Wasn't her." He stated confidently.

His response further bewildered the Irken. "Oh great! If it wasn't her, that means there's an intruder in the Base! _Computer!_ Quickly scan for intruders in the upper level!" Zim impatiently commanded as he activated his spider legs, wanting to rush to action.

"Master, if someone had intruded the alarms would have sounded." The Computer reminded him.

"I don't care! Just check them! Scan the premises!" Zim loudly demanded in an insane manner.

"Ugh..._Scanning...scanning_...Yup, I've got nothing." Computer confirmed, which only made Zim feel worse as a creepy feeling sank into the pit of his stomach.

He slinked onto the floor, his back against the wall as he held the two pieces of metal in each of his hands, his petrified eyes darting from one to the other, feeling uneasiness for some reason unbeknownst to him. Thinking quickly, and not wanting to stare at the Squeedily Spooch locket all day, he quickly ran to the upper level, hiding away both pieces in the _same_ drawer as each other...He turned back around, only to see Gir right behind him. He sighed in annoyance. "Gir, I already told you are _not_ to touch the Squeedily Spooch locket. And now you've taken this _bunny thing_ that belongs to Gaz human! If she finds out you stole it from her last night she'll DESTROY you!"

"YAY!" Gir cheered, hitting himself on the head with a piece of fried chicken.

"No! That's bad, Gir! _Real bad!"_ Zim scolded him, trying to get him to realize a dire situation. "Just forget that you ever saw it. _I'll_ give it back to her when she arrives!"

"Saw what?" Gir innocently asked.

"_Exactly. _Play dumb, Gir. Let the AMAZING ZIM take care of it!" The arrogant Irken assured the little bot, who happily ran out of the room...and directly into a wall.

Zim looked back over to the dresser drawer, where he hid the two pieces of jewelry. A deep frown now consumed his face, still miffed about his encounters with all the other Elites and Invaders he contacted. An uneasy feeling still lingered within him over his minion's strange choice of words, but nonetheless he tried to rationalize, chalking it up to Gir's usual craziness and hyperactive imagination. He had experiments to check on, and he needed to prepare some video games for the grumpy human's arrival. He felt _slight_ guilt for not going to school, but he still figured she'd be showing up to play some games with him...and he wasn't about to take that for granted. It's been awhile since he had played those games, and especially since he had decent competition.

As he headed back down to the lower level, he couldn't help but to think about his current situation, and still feel it..._lonely_. Treated as if he were _garbage_ and not someone important or amazing. Left completely to himself, almost feeling abandonment from his fellow Invaders, and the victim of their petty jealousy towards him. He thought back to Gaz human last night...sure, she also had the same brutality, if not more than some of Irk's finest Invaders, but he realized that she treated him..._differently. _He thought back to when she awkwardly hugged him last night. To how she _listened_ to him. How she consoled him, though she was fully aware he was here on a mission to invader her planet. That _wretched, scary, antisocial,_ _abnormally mean_ human had treated him..._Kindly..._More kindness than he had been shown in _years_...

Zim found himself _smiling_ once more...

That nagging feeling cropped up, the eagerness of looking forward to her coming over to his Base, and the anxiety of being unable to wait to spend time with her playing video games and talking...

While Zim was having an unusual time coming to terms with his inner emotions, a tired Gaz was powering through. The reading was making her even more tired, but she eventually made it through the school day without falling asleep. Feeling exhausted, she quickly headed to her locker to grab her backpack. She wanted to check on Zim...she wanted to check to see if she left her lost item behind...and she also wanted to check out all of his weird but cool Irken video games. But first, she had somewhere else she needed to be... She increased her stride, but it wasn't enough to avoid Dib.

"Hey! Gaz! Where are you going? Aren't you coming with me?" Dib asked curiously, awaiting an answer.

_Shit..._

"I _would_ but I'm going to play some video games with someone...Don't wait up for me." She only vaguely answered, her back turned to him.

"Wait...as in a _friend?_ Since when do you have those?" Dib smartly inquired as he adjusted his back pack, stopping dead in his tracks.

"Get a grip, Dib. Not a _friend_. _A video game competitor." _She briefly clarified, turning around to face him.

"Well who is this kid? Is it Poonchy? He likes you, ya know." The elder brother asked, growing evermore curious, amused...and a tad bit suspicious.

Gaz scoffed, somewhat angered by the suggestion of Poonchy. "No, it is _NOT_ Poonchy." She firmly told him.

_"Keef?" _He asked in a taunting manner, starting to laugh at her. After all, who would be dumb enough to hang around his horrifying sister?

"Yeah, okay. Let's go with that." She bitterly answered, disinterested.

"Well then _who?_ Do they even go to this school? Or is it some creep you met online? Are they 80? I bet they have a criminal record, don't they?" Dib kept firing question after question, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes.

After hearing his conspiracy theories, Gaz smirked, knowing she would get some form of satisfaction for at least annoying him. She knew Dib wasn't going to leave her alone anyways..._"Brace yourself_...It's _Zim."_ She admitted in amusement, snickering a bit.

At this response, Dib looked like he was about to foam at the mouth in a crazed fit of both shock and anger. _"WHAT?!"_ He snapped in disbelief as his sister held her usual indifferent attitude at the mention of hanging out with his dangerous alien nemesis.

"He's got an awesome stash of alien video games and I'm forcing him to compete against me." The dark girl whispered, watching Dib's eyes practically pop out of his head, almost in some sick form of delight.

"B-but he's my enemy! _ENEMY,_ GAZ!" Dib emphasized, almost speechless that his younger sister thought it to be a good idea to return to the lizard's evil lair, all for the sake of her stupid video games.

"I just want to play video games." She explained, shrugging her shoulders and then narrowing her eyes.

"I _won't_ allow this to happen!" Dib loudly and very protectively insisted, drawing the attention of the fellow students crowding the hallways.

Gaz angrily looked around, her eyes darting from person to person in the crowd, giving them a glare of disapproval. "Dib, it's just for a few hours._ Nothing more, nothing less._ He has _hundreds_ of video games I've never even _played_ before!" She quietly explained in an irritated voice, quite desperate to play video games that were never played by human hands.

"COME ON GAZ! ISN'T IT OBVIOUS?! Zim's just trying to lure you with video games so he can hold you hostage and scoop out your brains while you're distracted! He's nothing but a _disgusting_ space alien who wants to dissect you!" Dib forewarned in a crazed manner...

_"Oh, here we go!"_ A fellow student with short, spiky lavender hair, Zita, chimed in. "ENOUGH WITH THE ALIEN GARBAGE ALREADY!" She complained, actually siding with Gaz, to the goth's surprise.

"It's not _garbage!_ Would you trust _your_ sister with _Zim?!"_ Dib demanded to know, trying to make a point.

_"Yeah_. Zim may be _weird_ and _sick_ and _ugly_ but he's a good guy! Some of us _aren't_ racist ya know!" Zita angrily snapped back as she stood beside Gaz, with some murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

_"Thank you."_ Gaz responded to the girl, nodding in approval to her while directing a smirk at her brother.

_"Oh come on!_ You can call me lots of things but I'm _not_ racist! I just don't want that _alien creep_ touching my sister!" Dib told her, older brother defense mode kicking in.

"She's allowed to love who she wants to! _Love is love!"_ Zita passionately added, still siding with Gaz...though not in a way the goth had expected.

The love comment made Gaz's eyes widen in absolute surprise, as a rose colored blush now developed on her normally pale, emotionless face. A twinge of some sort of sick feeling occurred abruptly in her stomach, a direct result of the love comment, to her _horror._

"I'm not saying it _isn't,_ but Zim _DOESN'T_ LOVE! He HATES! You know, the OPPOSITE of love?!" Dib screamed, about ready to go berserk at the crazy accusations from classmates about Zim, which was now worse because it involved his little sister. The mere accusation of Zim loving Gaz in any way, shape or form put horrible mental images in his head which couldn't be erased. It was _stupid_ and most of all gross.

"Dib, it's just video games. You don't have to worry. If he does anything _really stupid_ I'll just rip his head from his torso and give it to you personally." The goth girl assured him, referring to usual dark threats in hopes of getting her way. She had no real intention to hurt Zim...

"Okay, I like the head coming off the torso part...but can't you just _buy_ the video games from him and play them in the safety of our house...you know, away from aliens?" Dib questioned, raising a brow.

"No. He won't sell them, they're RARE." She explained as best as she could in the moment, seeing the crowds' eyes were all on her.

"I'm sorry, Gaz. I just don't trust _him."_ He explained, attempting to put his foot down.

Which only served to anger the scolded sister... "If you so much as _try_ to stop me, I'm telling Dad you're depriving me of...a _social opportunity." _She darkly threatened in a most melodramatic fashion. While it didn't seem like much, it was indeed a _big_ threat in the Membrane household. Gaz was antisocial, and she never went out of her way to try to talk to other people or make friends, which their Dad found worrying...mostly because he just wanted his daughter to make friends and be happy and normal.

"NO! You-Y-you CAN'T use _that_ excuse!" Dib stuttered, now becoming worked up.

"Yes, I _can._ You know all too well that Dad's always wanted me to actually _socialize_ with people...what would DAD think if I told him YOU stopped me from hanging out with someone all because _you_ thought he was an alien?" The dark girl stated, twisting her father's well meaning advice of pushing his daughter to socialize with other humans.

"But he IS an alien!" The older brother insisted, about ready to rip his hair out. He calmed down, trying to think.

"Dib, chill out. It's just video games. He's competition to me." She assured him.

"B-but he wants to END THE WORLD!" Dib stressed to his indifferent sibling.

"You're crazy!" Zita complained, as well as the rest of the students, who looked at him like a social pariah.

"No! I'm NOT crazy!" Dib yelled in defense to the crowd. "You're all crazy for not thinking someone with GREEN skin who rants about destroying Earth right in front of your faces ISN'T an alien!" When he turned back around from his insult to his school mates, he saw his sister was headed to the art room?...

_The art room? Why's she going there? I've gotta put a stop to this! This is too far!_ Dib thought to himself, stealthily keeping an eye on Gaz as she walked into a classroom which wasn't even her own...

Some time later, the tired goth made her way to the doorstep of Zim's Base...with a few extra supplies hidden in her bag...It felt weird ringing the doorbell and going to somebody else's house...

Within a split second, Zim's antennae raised beneath his wig, and he literally found himself sprinting to answer the door for once. He happily flung the door open, smiling, actually looking forward to spending time with her.

"HELLO, GAZ-HUMAN!" He eagerly greeted her, giving her a big smile, his fake blue eyes now fixed on her.

This unexpected reaction made Gaz smile slightly...At least _someone_ seemed happy to see her...which _never_ seemed to occur. She gave a very cool _"Hey."_

He excitedly motioned for her to come inside...she followed him...and she was in for a surprise...

She looked around his living room, where he had neatly cleaned everything up to the point it seemed to sparkle and glisten! Not only that, but he had a variety of games and game systems set up, not to mention he had a snack spread set up on a long table, composed of both human and Irken cuisines and snacks alike.

To say she was at least somewhat astonished was an understatement! _"Whoa..."_ She lightly whispered under her breath, amber eyes now wide.

"Of course you're _greatly_ impressed, Gaz human!" He boasted, noticing her surprised reaction to the set up, which was to his liking. He wasn't quite sure why he went all out. Maybe to distract his mind from all the lousy transmission attempts with the Irken army. Perhaps in a bizarre effort to make her feel that he truly _is_ valuable, and prove his worth. Or maybe to show her some form of appreciation that he hasn't received today...

"Okay...now I know why you didn't come to _school_ today..." She said, her mouth slightly agape, staring at the trouble he went through just to have her back over at his house.

"Yeah..._that_...I was rather busy today, what with all of my work, experiments, and _communications_ and stuff..." He began to say, scratching the back of his head. "But, uh, I was _angered_ today what with the results of certain..._things..." _He presented vaguely, his voice laced with hidden frustration he was nonetheless experiencing.

"What are you _talking_ about? What _happened?"_ Gaz inquired, raising an eyebrow as she analyzed his facial expressions, out of concern for him.

"Eh...nothing much, just a _bad_ day involving _petty, pathetic_ people, but I suppose that's the price of being so amazing...However, your concern for me is _noted_, Gaz human..." He assured her, choosing not to elaborate. He looked her directly in the eyes before snapping his attention away. "Anyways, it was during today's madness that I realized something that others _stupidly_ overlook..._you_-you're _smarter_ than most people I know or than other _filthy_ humans give you credit for...You truly _appreciate_ my greatness. So, uh, just wanted you to know that...uh, this is _Zim's_ way of..." Zim struggled, searching for words almost painfully as he fumbled with his hands.

_"Thank you..."_ She told him, out of sincerity as she looked him in the eye, also relieving him of saying anything weird or sappy towards her. And unknowingly finishing his sentence for him. She didn't know what else had happened during the day that seemed to anger him, but she didn't want to pry at the moment. It would be up to him if he decided to tell her.

"You are most welcome, Gaz human!" Zim happily responded, feeling temporarily relieved he didn't have to express feelings of gratitude toward the human. He zoomed over to the dresser, and pulled out a familiar item that the goth girl had lost. He had his back to her as he held the metal bunny skull in his gloved hand. Though he was glad she had given his locket back to him, part of him wished to secretly keep the bunny skull, for reasons he couldn't quite comprehend at the moment. His hand nervously played with it, trying to quickly decide what he should do with it.

"BUNNY!" Gir randomly shouted from the kitchen, capturing both the alien and the goth girl's attention.

"Just stay in there, Gir!" Zim politely ordered, nervous the little bot would ruin the jewelry by blabbing. "I'm normal!" He assured Gaz, nervously chuckling.

"Normal's a far stretch..." She commented in a dead pan voice.

"CAN I HAVE MORE COFFEE?!" Gir asked. "MY PIGGY NEEDS IT!" He claimed. In the kitchen, the robot was having a tea party, also put together by Zim in an attempt to occupy the childish SIR unit. Gir sat at the table, laughing as he poured pitchers of tea on several paper plates instead of filling the toy tea cups. He watched it spill onto the floor, and then threw waffles onto the messy floor to soak it up. A mop with lipstick, a broom with a top hat, a live pig wearing a bow tie, Nick, Mini moose, a squid with a party hat, and a potted plant were his guests. The insane robot happily indulged himself in piles and piles of Girly Ranger Cookies.

_"Yeah, sure, whatever!"_ Zim impatiently answered, waving him off, his focus elsewhere as he stared at the metal bunny.

Even he knew it was selfish and perhaps hypocritical to keep it, but he couldn't help the sudden, _weird_ desire to keep something that was deeply associated with her presence. Like the locket, he almost felt a strange sense of security from it. Though kind of morbid, he was in favor of keeping it in case her life would come to an untimely end. To have something _personal_ to remember her by. However, unfortunately, he knew the right thing to do. He bit his lower lip, fighting the urge to keep the item, and give it back to the rightful owner.

"Oh, eh, by the way, I found your _bunny skull thingy_ that you left behind!" He somewhat nervously said to her, spinning around and suddenly handing the metal bunny to her.

At the sight of the recovered object, a wave of relief washed over the goth as she quickly grabbed the metal charm from his hand. She held it tightly, secretly thankful it was returned to her. "I was looking for this!" She said to him, almost a tad bit surprised, and relieved. "Where did you find it?" She asked him, feeling happier that it was back in her possession, letting out a small sigh of relief.

She seemed to be taking it better than he had imagined, to his relief. "I, uh found it while I was cleaning the couch cushions." He told her, taking the fall for Gir possibly stealing it.

"I was going _crazy_ trying to find it." She said, her demeanor relaxing a bit.

"What exactly is _it?"_ Zim asked, rather curiously, raising a non existent eyebrow. Though he remembered her wearing it on her being for as long as he's known her, he wanted to know more about it.

"It _used_ to be a hair barrette...then it broke. Then I made it into a necklace but the chain broke off. Then I just hooked it to the zipper of my favorite hoodie...and it broke again...I had it as long as I can remember. I always carry it with me... _It was a gift from my mom."_ She admitted, rather proudly as she fondly remembered her mother...at least what she could of her.

_"Oh..._" The alien lightly commented. Until yesterday, he had never known the Membranes had a mother, let alone that she died. He wanted to delve more into the subject, because he was strangely curious about the female parent of Dib and Gaz. He was unsure of what to say, though he felt he should say something, _anything. _"I never had a mother...or a parent." Zim awkwardly admitted, as he pondered.

Gaz looked at him curiously, opening her amber eyes. While it wasn't a shock to her, it was more like a paradox. The concept of having no parents was foreign, truly alien, yet she understood and was familiar with what it was like to grow up without parents. Though she loved her Dad, he was a workaholic that was addicted to science, and was hardly there for her and Dib growing up.

"Then who took care of you when you were a kid?" She inquired, curious of Zim's background.

"Oh...I had a cold, unfeeling robot arm once...but uh, I pretty much was on my own." He causally responded as if it was the most normal thing to say, as he started to remember his days as a smeet.

_"Wow..."_ She quietly responded, actually starting to understand why Zim seemed so reckless at times, and seemed to tune certain things out. At times he could act so immature and dumb, yet other times he was much smarter and more mature than most people she's met. She found it astounding that he even existed if he truly grew up without someone there to take care of him when he was young. _How in the hell did he survive?_

"I mean, _some_ smeets had parents and families while others didn't. That's just the way it is on Irk." He explained, shrugging his shoulders, even though on Earth it would seem like he was dealt a bad hand in life from early on up...

_"Smeets?"_ She repeated the foreign word on her lips, wanting him to elaborate.

"Yes. _Babies. Young ones. Children._" He clarified, sitting down on the couch.

Gaz followed suit, sitting on the couch aside of him, but not too close. She had a question, though she struggled with whether she should ask it or not. "Do you ever...get angry for not having a parent there for you?" She inquired, slightly fumbling with her hands. It was personal, and unlike her to ask, but she was curious if he had felt resentment over the issue.

Zim just looked at her. He noted that she seemed bothered by it. _Is she upset with her own parents? The mother had been dead for years...The father? The father's not bad, but he's never around...-OH..._ He thought to himself as he pondered it, realizing... He analyzed the pros and cons of it for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

_"No."_ He replied in a calm voice, grabbing a game controller.

While she was surprised by his answer, she was more curious than anything, shaking her head, almost in disbelief. _"Really?"_ She questioned.

"Well, I've thought about it. Many people have HORRIBLE parents that they're stuck with. I mean, I could have had decent parents. I could have had one horrible parent and one good one. Plus you'd usually have to obey their usually _dumb_ commands either way, sometimes even through adulthood. Personally, for my amazing self, I'm okay with it. I guess it would be different if I had parents and then I _didn't,_ or if they abandoned me. Then I _would be_ angry." He honestly answered, shrugging his shoulders.

She nodded, as she kinda understood where he was coming from. He did have a good point about many other having horrible parents. It was strange talking about this sort of subject with anyone, let alone Zim of all people.

Zim noticed her frown had returned to her face. "Your father..._I've noticed_...he's hardly ever there..." He began to say, capturing her full attention once more.

"Hardly even _see_ him anymore. But who else is going to fix this _idiotic_ world's _stupid_ problems? As for my mom...she was _great._ She died when I was young...It's getting harder and harder to remember her." She bitterly responded, as she looked at the Irken's games and systems.

"You...grew up without parents _too."_ Zim said in some form of realization, lightly pointing a finger at her. For some reason it was kind of interesting to him. It was yet another thing they had in common.

"Technically, _yeah."_ The dark girl admitted, looking him directly in his fake blue eyes.

"It's _difficult_, navigating the _filthy_ world by yourself as a smeet. _Worse_ for you, since you don't possess a Pak installed with prior knowledge and weapons. That at least made things somewhat _easier."_ The alien bravely acknowledged the situation. Much like him, she and Dib had to apparently take care of themselves since they were worm-babies. However, it was indeed worse for them, living on a planet as filthy and horrible as Earth without the help of a Pak.

"Yeah. I'm glad I had my Game slave with me for most of it. Otherwise, I'd be insane." She replied, slightly smiling.

"Ah, yes. Video games. I've been playing them since I was a smeet. Heh, we've even had them at all of our schools and for our military academies." He responded, fondly remembering it was the best part of his training.

Gaz's eyes widened, the last part came as a slight surprise to her. "You had video games in school and in the military?" She repeated, with much interest, and perhaps a tad bit of jealousy.

"Well, _yeah._ Video games provided realistic virtual simulations. Very _useful_.._and fun._ You developed hand-eye coordination, fast problems solving skills, you reacted to _deadly, horrifying_ attacks from other opponents, learned _fast_, creative solutions..." He explained.

The gloomy words 'deadly, horrifying attacks' made Gaz's eyes light up. Definitely her type of games, they sounded hardcore, especially if Irkens used them as another part of military training.

"Speaking of which, I just so happen to have a few of those games...RIGHT HERE!" Zim excitedly informed her, pulling a box full of them over.

Gaz was helpless as a big smile formed on her normally sullen face. "You have..._more?" _She asked, with much enthusiasm building within her.

"Yep. I was thinking we could start off with Brain Eaters 3 or Trail of Destruction! OOOH! Or how about Bone Crunchers: The Deadening! Or Meat Manglers: Irk's Toughest Mercenaries." He enthusiastically proclaimed, holding them up. "I have two virtual reality helmets right here!"

"I want to try Meat Manglers first!" She replied, brimming with enthusiasm for violent alien video games.

"Excellent choice, Gaz human! This _has_ to be one of my favorites!" He happily responded, picking up a metallic purple colored gaming helmet, his arms approaching her with it.

For reasons unknown, she felt unsure, she jerked her head away from him, before he could place it on her.

Zim stopped, still holding the helmet in his hands, somewhat dumbfounded...and perhaps slightly offended. He stared at her in curiosity.

"I can put it on myself." She assured him, holding her hands out for him to pass it to her. She didn't know why she backed away. They just had a nice conversation. They hugged _twice_ yesterday, even if it was kind of strange. He set this up for her, did something seemingly sweet for her...then again, it was something almost instinctual that resided in the goth girl; she didn't trust anyone besides her family. Couple those trust issues with the fact Zim is indeed an alien Invader focused on demolishing her world. Bizarre experiments and sneaky moves were definitely part of his repertoire. She wouldn't exactly put it past him to attempt to wipe her memory of him because she witnessed his moment of vulnerability last night. Not only that, but she had a feeling that the purple helmet he chose for her was something used frequently by Azel...

"Actually, I need to quickly reprogram it for you so you can use it properly...The purple helmet hasn't been used in..._years." _He informed her, also confirming her suspicions of it being favored by Azel.

Gaz tried to shake off any strange feeling of slight unease. "I'll put it on." She told him, holding her arms out for him to give to her.

"You have to be careful with these models, ya know...If you put it on yourself for the first time ever, it just might induce a _horrible, painful_ death in mere seconds..." He casually told her, as if he was unfazed.

Gaz _cringed,_ perhaps slightly _mortified._ _She was supposed to use this?!_

Suddenly, Zim burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, wiping a tear from his eye, as he enjoyed the freaked out look on her normally indifferent face. "Relax! It's just a joke! Like the ones you make at times." He assured her between laughter.

At this, the goth girl felt more at ease, even starting to snicker at the alien's twisted form of dark humor. "You have a _sick_ sense of humor." She pointed out while smiling at him.

"I know." He proudly replied, taking it as a compliment. "You're pretty _twisted_ yourself, what with your constant threats of _limb removal_ and _eyeball removal._" He pointed out in amusement.

_"Thank you."_ She smugly responded, also taking it as a compliment. She did appreciate that he had a dark sense of humor...and apparently her dark demeanor also made a lasting impression on the Irken Invader.

"In all seriousness, the helmet _does_ need to be reprogrammed for you..._if_ you'll allow me..." He suggested, this time politely to her.

"Okay...but you better not mess up my _mega cool hair_...or my _brain._ " She forewarned as he approached her with it, causing a smirk to form on his face.

He had gotten closer to her, his fake blue eyes looking down at her amber eyes, indirectly observing her thick black eyelashes for just a nanosecond or two. Her eyes fluttered a few times in reaction to this, given the rare opportunity to be rather close to his face. The Irken gently swept her soft purple hair to the sides of her face with his gloved hands, moving it out of the way. His light touch to her cheeks sent a shiver through the dark girl's spine. His rather unintentional touch had caused an involuntary reaction, her face quickly heated up as a pinkish-red color appeared on her normally pale face...

_And Zim noticed._

Though he held the gaming helmet above her head, he _froze._ He stopped focusing on the helmet for a brief few seconds, almost studying her facial expressions. His fake blue eyes completely met hers. His eyes widened, if he had brows, they would be raised right now. However, he felt his antennae raise a tad bit beneath his black wig. She looked more surprised than anything, perhaps _embarrassed, _especially now that he caught her. His mouth now hung slightly agape, in near disbelief as to what he was witnessing...

Thinking fast, she quickly pulled the helmet down, the screen like visor now completely _covering,_ and more importantly, _hiding_ her blushing face from him. In the moment of doing so, her hands accidentally touched his own, invoking some of the horrible butterflies in her stomach. She quickly pulled away, putting her hands to the sides of her.

Experiencing her light touch to either of his hands, Zim was taken aback, he jerked his hands back away from her, a feeling of deep uncertainty stirred within him at the moment. He was _intrigued_ that _Gaz human_, the _deadliest_ human of all humans, seemed to have taken a liking to him. He felt _flattered_, as this gave him an ego boost...a _big_ one. In all his years on Earth, he had never seen Gaz human with any partner before, or display these types of emotions to anyone. He never saw her blush. He was almost certain she didn't feel for others in that sense...however, after a mere unintentional touch, it was clear she had developed feelings of sorts for him. Most other humans had no such interest in him, except for maybe Keef. Others at school viewed him as weird, sickly, and gross. While he was normally arrogant about looking good, he could care less if humans found him attractive or not, as long as what they thought didn't jeopardize his disguise. While the aforementioned encounter with Gaz was unusual, strangely enough it _didn't_ repulse him. At the very least, he should have felt some feelings of _illness_ or _repulsion_ that a _human_ female had some feelings for him and enjoyed being close...but that didn't bother him. If anything, at the moment, he felt bewildered yet intrigued and even _flattered_ by the mysterious goth girl.

A larger than life smile spread across his face, amused with the current situation.

Gaz could see his reaction through the visor, which was almost comparable to looking through a pair of sunglasses. A strange, demented but delighted smile was now present on his face, revealing his zipper like teeth.

He had begun to adjust the helmet, tweaking a few controls on the outer layer, unable to stop smiling, even happily humming a tune...

If Gaz could, she would smack herself in the head until she fell unconscious. She felt embarrassed that he had this effect on her, worse yet that he had witnessed it directly. She was _sick_ if she liked Zim! She _had_ to be! She mentally cursed herself for letting any form of those feelings slip through for him, directly in front of him. For acknowledging him in that way, because for the most part, she knew Zim. He wasn't over Azel, for one. Two, he was arrogant, and he hated nearly all humans, much like herself in that aspect. She wondered if he found it to be funny or a joke. He could _toy_ with her. Mock her. Make fun of her. However, if he _would_ be that stupid to do such a thing, she knew his weaknesses, and she knew of a certain dark, creepy cave to dispose of him in if it came down to it. Not even _Dib_ would find him...or what would _remain_ of him...

"All done." He happily concluded, hitting a button on the side, which caused a bright blue light to emanate on the helmet's visor. It turned on, and a screen not unlike a television appeared before the girl's very eyes.

_"Whoa..."_ She quietly muttered, impressed with breathtaking graphics that appeared before her, as well as some alien writing.

Zim chuckled at her reaction. "Of course it's impressive. It's _Irken_ technology."

"These...are _the_ BEST graphics I have ever seen." Gaz blatantly stated, already awestruck.

"Just wait until the game _begins_, little Gaz!" Zim eagerly told her. _"Are you ready to compete with Zim?"_ The Irken Invader challenged her in a low, gruff tone of voice, his narrowed ruby eyes now lighting up...though he was unable to see her face due to the illuminated screen...

The flustered goth girl smirked beneath the helmet, eager for the challenge... "I think the _real_ question is, are _you_ ready to compete with _Gaz?"_ She darkly corrected, feeling the intensity of competition setting in...

A _wicked, twisted_ smile spread across Zim's green face, revealing his zipper tooth grin within the reflection of the goth girl's visor...

* * *

_So I don't know what to write here other than I hope this chapter didn't suck. _

_I've been trying to get Gaz to recognize that she has more than friendship feelings towards Zim..._

_After the next chapter is out, I'll probably include a bit of a time skip since I wrote a really slow start._


	8. The Beyond

_Thanks to all readers and reviewers for checking out my story. :)_

_Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Thank you. XD The guest idea just appeared to me randomly, more on one of those guests this chapter...Dib seems to be the only one to perceive Zim as a threat, and he can be to other people...but not to Gaz. While Dib may have bad luck, he's definitely not going to be trusting Zim..._

_Invader Johnny: Thank you! XD Gaz really went for the throat with that threat. While her father might be busy and a workaholic, ironically he does worry about her not socializing enough._

_Damy Dark: Thank you so much! It's difficult for Zim to accept company from a non Irken, but he is warming up to the idea of spending time with Gaz. Oh, and the bunny brooch was just an idea I got from comic Gaz's bunny skull shirt. XD Yeah, Grapa is indeed a fool. And Zim and Azel really clicked with each other from the start. The word Mooshminky isn't mine, I used it because it sounded cool. If I'm not mistaken I think the word was used in the Frycook episode but I haven't seen it in quite awhile. I think Gaz may have met her match going up against Azel...Choosing Azel or Gaz was Zim's interpretation of what Gir was saying, we'll see how it plays out. Dib is far from finished from confronting them, I can safely say he won't be taking Zim and Gaz's relationship well, whether it's platonic or romantic. I don't think Zim would confuse Gaz and Azel, he might make some mistakes but definitely not that one. I'll have to check out some Creepypastas :) Much appreciated!_

_QueenofDoomydoom: Thank you!_

_This is a really long chapter...just a warning..._

_~Sammi._

* * *

A gasp of sheer horror escaped from his mouth...he never felt so..._appalled._ _Completely, unbelievably, appalled._ And _angry..._his breathing was shaky, and he felt such anxiety and rage...

A cold, metal coil, a mechanical appendage of sorts, slithered like a snake through the air. Attached to the end of the flexible coil, was a bionic eyeball of sorts...which was actually an impressive camera. The camera zoomed in on the situation, slithering around the outside trim of the window, zooming in on the situation through a small open part in the curtains...particularly at the green skinned alien freak which had gotten too close for comfort to Gaz...

He watched the scene unfold and it _sickened_ him. It shook him to his core...Gaz blushing as that _despicable, evil,_ enemy of his swept her hair to the sides, a big smirk apparent on his face as he fastened what _had_ to be a mind control device onto her head...

Though the audio temporarily broken, and he couldn't hear a word of conversation, what he was witnessing was enough...

_This was her 'social opportunity'?! _Dib thought to himself, as he hid in a bush adjacent from Zim's house, carefully watching them since Gaz had arrived. He was thankful for the spying tool, something that he had built himself specifically to monitor Zim...and occasionally Bigfoot. While Dib had no intention of joining the scientific field, he found that if he applied himself, he understood it, and could use technology and inventions to combat the alien menace...which benefited both the Earth as well as his paranormal studies.

He wanted to run in that house several times by now. Each little movement the lizard made nearly petrified him, due to his sister being in such close proximity to him. He wanted to protect her from him, in case he tried to do anything stupid to her. Oddly enough, he noticed that Zim had prepared for her arrival. Tons of video games and snacks awaited her...yet she seemed to spend some time _actually talking to him_ before they even played...it was kind of disturbing how they seemed to confide in each other...

He tried to wrap his mind around it, but the blush he just witnessed, combined with Gaz actually being somewhat social towards him was starting to confirm a horrible suspicion; his younger sister seemed to _like_ Zim...

_She has to be insane! How could she like him! How could she possibly think that it's normal to go to an alien Invader's house to play video games with him?! Did she forget he's here to conquer the planet?! Did she forget that he hates ALL humans?! Come on, Gaz! You're smarter than this! How could you even think Zim is capable of caring for anyone besides himself?!_ _Like you literally couldn't find anyone else on this planet?!_ Dib frantically thought to himself.

As much as he really wanted to storm in and choke Zim at the moment, he knew it was best to observe what was going on first and learn what he could. He squinted his left eye shut, using his right eye to peer through the scope and nervously watch and see what Zim was really up to...

Meanwhile, inside the Base, Zim retrieved something from a box...a pair of thick lavender colored gloves, designed as a method of control for the game.

"Where are the controls?" Gaz inquired, unable to see anything with the lit screen in front of her eyes.

_"Right here_. They're actually a pair of gloves." He informed her, before clearing his throat. "Uh, so if you'll _allow_ me..." He started off, suggesting that he put them on for her.

Gaz bit her lower lip. She couldn't see where he was at now due to the screen being turned on. But on the plus side, at least he couldn't see her facial expressions at the moment. "Okay. Go ahead." She said, giving him permission to do so.

The smile never quite left his lips as he carefully placed the large gloves on her, gently grabbing and touching her arms in order to do so. Though he couldn't view her face, if her reaction was similar to the blush before, he felt immensely flattered.

Gaz felt like _throwing up._ He infected her like a disease and he was disrupting her nerves of steel, _melting_ them. She felt slightly nervous, due to mentally acknowledging her own feelings for him. She secretly enjoyed his touch, to her _horror. She couldn't ignore it. She felt his gloved hand gliding up her left arm..._She wondered if he was now doing it deliberately to get her flustered, just to amuse himself. Her heart beat accelerated because of him, as she tried to quell those horrible butterflies and calm down.

She thought about it, and she wasn't quite sure as to exactly_ when_ she started to develop feelings for him. It was definitely before yesterday's events. At times, she quietly admired the doofus from a distance when they were at school. He was funny. Entertaining. _Strange_. _Dark._ Smart when he wanted to be. That semi competent fool, _Zim_, was her secret shame. It didn't go any further than occasional glances, smirks and snide comments at one another in the school setting. Dib was always there to intervene. Then yesterday's events made a sudden difference...it brought them _closer._

The more she interacted with him, the stronger these feelings for him were becoming. How she _hated_ it...She knew they could be barely functional as friends/competitors/occasional acquaintances. A relationship in the future would be impossible. She reluctantly decided any feelings other than friendship were impractical, since he could never reciprocate. He loved Azel, and would forever. And Zim _hated_ humans as much as she did. It would be unnatural to form an intimate relationship with a human. It was downright stupid to feel this way for him; for something that would never happen. It kinda hurt, but it was true. And it would hurt way less if she just accepted it now. She did however, want to enjoy the twisted sort of semi-friendship between them...even if it wouldn't last, at least it could be kinda fun.

"Done." He proudly told her, as he quickly started to put on his red helmet and gloves, preparing for the game. With both helmets and gloves connected to the game system, they were now ready to play.

Gaz was relieved that they could focus on the game for awhile, instead of directly talking to or staring awkwardly at one another. She figured it could help alleviate any weird vibes.

Zim turned on his Meat Manglers game, and the two of them excitedly began to play...

A few hours later left both of them ecstatic. After fighting off hours of _hideous, gut wrenching, fast paced, three dimensional horror,_ they had each attained a high score, and decided to take a break once the rest of their game was saved.

Both Zim and Gaz removed their helmets and gloves, putting them on the gaming table.

"WHOO!" Zim happily shouted as he let himself fall backward into the soft couch. "That was AWESOME! Did you see the way I exploded that entire nest of sleeper cells?!" He inquired as he suddenly turned to face her.

_"Hell yeah!_ And then the blood splattered all over the General!" She enthusiastically finished. She was impressed with the highly detailed graphics. She was actually amazed by the effects in the game. It blew most other Earthly games out of the water, as most couldn't even compete with this. "You're actually a decent gamer!" She genuinely acknowledged, surprised with his skill.

Zim's eyes widened with delight. "Thank you, Gaz human! I thoroughly enjoyed the way you gruesomely decapitated him with only a small, _dull_ blade!" He complimented, enjoying her talent for the gory game.

"I think I just found my new favorite game..." She told him, unable to stop smiling from the gory, action packed excitement and amazing graphics.

"Ah, it is a classic on Irk. I needed to take a break however. I hadn't really eaten anything since well..._last night."_ Zim informed her, not really wanting to talk about the previous night. He leaned forward, popping open an Irken soda and guzzling it. He then ripped open a bag of what would be the Irken version of Cheezos and started devouring them, and shoving some weird fries in his mouth. "Which _reminds_ me, I've stocked this place full of Irken and Earth foods, including your greasy pizza, so you're welcome to both." He proudly reminded her, motioning to all the food as he chewed with his mouth open.

"Thanks." She told him, about to grab a slice of Bloaty's pizza...She noted it was strange...of all the pizza places in town, he specifically ordered Bloaty's for her...

_Did he actually remember my favorite pizza?_

_"WAIT!"_ He abruptly yelled like a lunatic, stopping her from eating the pizza as if it was going to kill her. "Aren't you _at least_ going to try some of my planet's _finest_ cuisines?" He inquired. "They're _far superior_ to your _grotesque_ Earth foods."

She stared at him for a moment, his eyes almost looked pleading, so she very reluctantly put the pizza back. _"Fine."_ Her eyes quickly scanned the table for what looked the best. She found what appeared to be a cupcake in an Irken wrapper. She decided upon that as she reached for it.

"WAIT!" He once again yelled in an effort to urge her to stop, just about getting on her nerves at this point.

"What is it _now?"_ She demanded to know, growing somewhat impatient.

"I thought you would be wise enough to try a Mooshminkie first!..._I made them myself._" He proudly declared, handing her some weird, foreign looking foods on a plate. He took one himself and happily devoured the strange food. To Gaz, it looked like a fried blue tortilla with something wrapped in it, contents unknown.

She raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Gir didn't help you make this, _did he?"_ She inquired, not willing to eat anything that Gir had dealt with...especially since she's once heard from Zim the story of Gir making waffles with soap in them.

"Nope. He's much too busy having a tea party." He explained, hoping to calm any phobias of Gir trying to make anything edible.

Meanwhile, Gir was in the kitchen drinking pot after pot of coffee, making him extra caffeinated and crazy...he was jittery and hyper, laughing like a maniac to himself as he kissed the mop poorly disguised as a woman.

"Fine." She responded as nice as she could, taking the offered Mooshminkie or whatever the hell he was talking about. She brought it to her face and sniffed it, trying to see what exactly it was...because she had _no idea._

"MY FOOD DOESN'T STINK!" Zim immediately shouted, feeling a bit defensive as if she was implying something.

"I never said it did. _Weirdo." _She retorted, still inspecting the food, analyzing it with her eyes.

"Oh...okay." He calmly responded, feeling worked up over nothing now. He watched her with interest. He noticed her hesitation, much to his dismay. It was similar to when he first tried foods from Earth...

She didn't know why she was stalling so much. Maybe she was just wary about eating food from other planets with foreign ingredients...maybe it was the fact that Zim had made it himself...she really didn't know.

"Hmm...And here I thought you were _brave_...I guess I was wrong..." Zim said with a sigh, feigning some form of disappointment in order to fire up the finicky Gaz human.

_"What did you just say?"_ A now irritated Gaz demanded he man up and repeat himself.

Zim found himself smirking at her, petrified as hell, but he enjoyed teasing her, as dangerous as it was. "I said as unbelievable as it is, I was _wrong._ You're _scared_..." He dared to repeat, coming closer to her face deliberately whispering the last part, wanting to cause the pinkish color to appear on her face.

The goth girl found herself trying to fight off the blush forming on her face. She narrowed her eyes, glaring at him. "I'm NOT afraid. I just like to take my time with things..." She explained in a serious tone.

"HA! I spent _years_ bravely eating your _horrible, disgusting_ Earth food filled with sawdust and misery in order to blend in, and you can't even try something delicious prepared by the amazing Zim?" He stated, trying to make a point. He was ever so confident that if she tried it, she would like his food.

"You are _really_ pressing your luck today..." She grumbled under her breath. "And I warned you not to eat the cafeteria food. You could have just packed a lunch instead of choosing to suffer like a moron. Nobody would have noticed or cared." She snapped back, getting her point across as well.

"Whatever! So are you going to try it or not?" He persisted, almost impatiently.

"Fine!" She said, holding the Mooshminkie closer to her face once more.

She noticed him watching her with much anticipation...so she finally worked up enough courage to give it a try. After all, Zim was very picky when it came to food. And he was a neat freak. _How bad could it be?_

She tried a bite, slowly chewing it as she processed the variety of different tastes...and then it hit her...Her eyes popped open, utterly shocked. The closest comparison she could think of was some form of weird blueberries wrapped in churros with vanilla frosting...but WAY better!

"So...?" The Irken asked, eager for an answer, particularly a positive one.

"This tastes..._meh."_ Gaz said in a casual tone as if it wasn't great, messing with him.

"MEH?! What do you mean 'Meh'? You're _obviously_ not tasting it right! I made these myself! Curse your _inferior human_ taste buds!" He dramatically screamed in an insane tone at the ceiling, but also experiencing vast disappointment.

"Relax..._I'm kidding._ This is probably one of the best foods I've EVER eaten. _EVER._ Seriously, this is_ awesome!"_ Gaz replied, with much enthusiasm for a change as she quickly finished the weird Mooshminkie desert thing that Zim had prepared.

At this, Zim's eyes lit up and he was absolutely delighted. It was strange, but he never actually shared Irken food, let alone dishes he cooked himself, with a human. A sense of pride swelled in him as the normally unimpressed human found the Mooshminkies to be perhaps _the_ best thing she had ever tasted. "I knew you'd like it! I'm an _excellent_ cook! The _best_ on Irk! Now, to try the other foods I've prepared from scratch! I've made Vort dogs, Vort fries, and _Irken pizza,_ which is far _superior_ than the commercial pizza your obese pig-man regurgitates and serves the masses!"

"So your saying that I'll like _your_ pizza better than Bloaty's, my _all time_ favorite?" She curiously inquired, narrowing her eyes and scoffing at the mere audacity of the statement. _His arrogance really hit an all time high if he thinks that..._She thought to herself, now amused by it. "Have you even _tried_ Bloaty's pizza?" She inquired, already knowing the answer.

"Yes and yes!" He proudly boasted, handing her a weird looking pizza to taste, as well as taking a slice for himself. "Prepared by _yours truly!"_ He bragged. Truthfully, he had no clue what Bloaty's pizza tasted like, he never tried it, but judging by the grease and the sleazy pig-human on the commercials, it was a safe bet it wasn't very good.

_"We'll see..." _She arrogantly replied, snickering at the ridiculousness of his bet. She held Bloaty's pizza in one hand, and Zim's weird Irken home made pizza in the other. She took a bite of the alien prepared pizza. There was no other pizza, no way that-

_"No way..." _She muttered under her breath in a state of shock, her taste buds now processing all the flavors of the foreign pizza.

_"Yes?"_ Zim asked, growing excited, practically bouncing up and down on the couch.

"NOT POSSIBLE!" She cried out, letting out a small gasp as she took another bite of the pizza in her hand, mostly to make sure she wasn't delirious...

"YES?!" Zim inquired, becoming even more thrilled.

Her eyes widened, completely entranced by it. She was in damn near disbelief. It was as if everything she knew was wrong. It was like being told the Earth was flat and believing it your whole life when it's actually round! It came as a shock...she dramatically put down the slice of Bloaty's pizza back on the plate!

"YES!" Zim happily yelled, fist pumping. "Was I right or was I right?!" He arrogantly said to the pizza obsessed goth, watching her ferociously devour the pizza he made instead.

"Yours was only SLIGHTLY better than Bloaty's...it was close to a tie." She informed him, still experiencing some form of a pizza related shock to her life.

"VICTORY FOR ZIM! MY PIZZA IS FAR SUPERIOR TO YOUR _BLOATED HOG_ PIZZA!" He proudly declared. "IN YOUR FACE, MUTATED PIG MAN!" He screamed in a victorious tone at an image of Bloaty on a cardboard pizza box.

"FINE! IT WAS _GREAT_, OKAY! Now you got me _hooked! _So I'm going to be needing _more _of your weird but delicious pizza..._A LOT more."_ She informed him, almost fiendishly, grabbing him by the shoulders, pulling him closer, and almost _maniacally_ looking him in the eyes. She was now _addicted._ And Zim would have to be her pizza supplier.

The Irken smiled. _"Gladly,_ Gaz human." He smoothly replied, enjoying her attention.

She was indeed inflating his ego today in every way possible..which he enjoyed. He seemed to get a high off of it, the compliments and the acknowledgment she was giving him. She gave him more attention and praise in one day than he's received by the rest of his ingrate comrades in years. It seemed..._fulfilling.._even if it did come from just one human. More so Dib's own sister. Oddly enough, now that he got her hooked on his pizza, he knew that he was going to end up making more for the girl. Not only because he now _wanted_ to, but now that she officially designated his recipe for pizza to be her new favorite, so he wouldn't have much of a choice.

The purple haired girl realized she was holding him tight, and that she had pulled him a little too close, so she let go. She felt another blush emerging on her face to her horror...which made Zim's eyes light up. To him, her blush was a signal of shame or embarrassment due to her finding him attractive...

And he was surprisingly okay with that. He considered himself a rather attractive Irken. Color forming onto Gaz human's normally pale face was just proof of that.

_Understandable__...Who wouldn't find me attractive? _He mentally boasted, wiping some cheese and sauce from the side of his face with a napkin.

The goth girl decided it was for the best to continue their conversation, instead of pondering in awkward silence. "So when you say you made this yourself, did you actually get ingredients, mix them together, and bake them or did you just buy it frozen in a box and microwave it?" She firmly inquired, analyzing with her eyes him for any sign of deceit.

"I _already_ told you. I actually cooked this all myself, with the exception of anything prepackaged lying on the table." He clarified, as he ate a Vort dog, stuffing his face with it, and getting some crumbs on himself.

"Wow...I gotta say...you're surprisingly a _really_ good cook." She genuinely complimented, eating some more pizza.

"Thank you." Zim politely responded, glad for her acknowledgment, as he ate the Irken version of Cheezos...getting the cheesy dust all over his couch...and some on Gaz as well, to her annoyance.

"Where did you learn to cook like that?" She asked, taking a drink, now rather curious about the subject. He had more talent than she had previously expected...

"Well, let's just say years ago the Tallest had a Foodening emergency, so they appointed me to be the manager of a very large restaurant. I was the very talented and designated...Frycook...of DOOM!" Zim ignorantly informed her, embellishing the reality of his banishment situation. While technically a lie, he did actually pick up a few skills while working at the Flavor Monster.

After hearing the word 'Frycook' from Zim's mouth, Gaz accidentally spit some of her soda out, her eyes snapping open in surprise.

"What?! It was only a temporary thing and it didn't take away from my Invader status at all!" He quickly said, referring to his denial to cover up the truth. Unfortunately for him, no matter how much he could lie and deny, Gaz was smart enough to see through it and get the truth.

_"No_...That's not it..." She muttered, a bit perturbed by what he had just said. She was unsure if she wanted to say anything about it or not, but she figured it couldn't hurt.

"Then what is it?" He curiously asked, cracking open a pack of Irken fun dip. He soon dumped the blue sugary mixture straight onto his snake like tongue, not even bothering to scoop it out...and in turn, he made a bit of a mess.

Gaz just looked at him. She thought her eating habits weren't the greatest, but this guy's was _way_ worse. She stared at the blue fun dip stuck to the side of his face before continuing. "Remember how I was talking to you about dreams? Well, last night...I had a brief dream. I didn't think nothing of it until now...It didn't seem important...I saw you as a _Frycook."_ She admitted in a serious tone, looking him directly in his eyes.

Zim just looked at her, baffled, for she stunned him into silence. He was speechless. All he could do in the moment was blink. This was beyond his realm of explanation. "How can that _be?"_ He finally inquired, now a bit disturbed from her sudden insight.

"You were wearing a tall red hat with a yellow S shape on it. You had deep red goggles and a white apron." She explained aloud, more or less amazed at the fact that she somehow getting a glimpse into his life through her dream.

Zim's eyes now widened after hearing the accurate details, a feeling of shock surged through his body. He was a little unnerved by it. _How? Just HOW?!_ He frantically thought to himself. "How could you _possibly_ know that?!" He asked, in near disbelief over the accuracy.

"I don't know. I just do..." She quietly admitted, feeling his discriminating gaze fall upon her.

"So...your dreams and sleep cycles might be..." Zim struggled to search for the word to complete his question. It was _unnatural._

_"Psychic?_ I..._don't know."_ She responded, feeling somewhat thrilled yet troubled about it._ How did I possibly know this? Did Azel show me this? Why?_

"I was going to say _accurate._ Perhaps not quite as random as I assumed..._interesting_..." Zim told her, pondering aloud as he stroked his chin with his hand.

Gaz's eyes widened. He didn't make fun of her...he actually _believed_ her, to her surprise. And this brought about the perfect opportunity, as a conversation had taken a direction in her favor. "I know, right? Uh, it would be kinda _cool_ to see what you can dream about..." She started off, directing the conversation.

Zim looked at her, somewhat confused but also with interest, since she _did_ throw in a compliment. "I suppose it _would,_ but I don't sleep."

"I mean, come on. If I can have some cool dreams, just imagine what you can dream of...it would probably be..._pretty awesome_...you should try it..." She said, throwing him more compliments, though a bit strained. She wasn't fond of subtle manipulation, she was usually brutally honest and to the point, but she had an agenda of her own...and she needed him to comply.

Zim smiled as she gave him yet another compliment about himself. She really did seem to believe in his greatness, which he enjoyed. "I'm sure my dreams would be far superior than I can imagine..." He gloated, almost pondering it.

Gaz stretched her arms upwards, forcing herself to let out a yawn. "Well, I'm actually _really_ tired...after I get done eating all this _delicious food_, do you mind if I crash here...just for an hour or two?" She asked him. She really was tired, but she had a more important issue to deal with...

"Uh, are you sure? You're choosing _sleep_ over video games...you mustn't be feeling well..." He pointed out, almost surprised. She never turned down video games, but then again, he figured as tough as Gaz is, she's human and needed rest.

"Yeah...Just a quick nap since I didn't sleep for 24 hours...you should try taking a nap too. Might help you..." She suggested, trying to convince him.

"Hmm..." He mentally debated about trying it for a moment. "Alright." He answered, shrugging his shoulders, getting up from the sofa and heading over to the closet. He retrieved two pillows and a throw blanket for Gaz. He returned to the spot, handing it to the girl. He kept one pillow for himself, as he sat on the sofa to the opposite of her, placing it on the armrest. He watched Gaz nestle up on the far end, curling up in the blanket. As she got comfortable, he felt comfortable enough to extend his legs and just relax. Luckily, the couch was big enough for the two of them to lay there comfortably, without them having to cozy up too close to each other...

Meanwhile, outside of the home, Dib continued to watch ever so nervously. It was bad enough his sister ate some of his weird alien food, but then she thought it would be a good idea to fall asleep near the guy?! He was confounded. They slept at opposite sides, instead of cuddling up, so maybe it wasn't a love interest sort of thing. Or maybe it was one sided, on Gaz's side. By now he felt like barging in at least one hundred times, day dreaming about destroying Zim's lawn gnome SWAT team, disabling the alien's security system and rescuing Gaz..but he didn't. Not yet. Something wasn't quite right about this, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it...

Both Zim and Gaz just laid there for a few moments, staring at the ceiling. Gaz eventually shut her eyes, while Zim just continued to stare, _bored,_ blinking every so often. He couldn't relax. He was always doing _something_ with his time. He didn't feel tired, so how was he supposed to just magically fall asleep?

Finally, growing impatient, he blurted out. "Computer! Initiate a sleep cycle onto me!" He loudly commanded.

_"Ughhh_...For approximately how long, Master?" The annoyed A. I. asked.

"Anywhere from one to two hours!" The Irken answered.

The Computer let out a sigh, as two cables from the ceiling extended downwards, connecting to Zim's Pak. "Turning off consciousness switch." It stated...

Within seconds, Zim was quietly and comfortably asleep for what seemed like the first time ever...

The exact moment Zim induced sleep upon himself, Gaz forced her tired eyes open. She gently nudged the alien's leg with her own, seeing if he was actually asleep or just faking it. He didn't seem to be moving, so she took that as her cue, and sat up. She quickly grabbed her bag, which she sat right alongside of the couch, and got to work. She glanced over at Zim, looking at his sleeping form. As she turned her head back around, she came face to face with something truly disturbing...

"DIS MY FRIEND, LOUISE!" A shrill voice screamed, as a mop made to look like a woman was shoved in Gaz's face.

_"Shhh!"_ Gaz told Gir, who had his arm wrapped around the yellow mop with some googly eyes glued on, a pink bow, and some bright red lipstick. A light purple floral dress was sadly draped around the mop with safety pins and duct tape...

Gaz just smacked her head at the sight of 'Louise', which was obviously a pathetic creation Zim put together for Gir.

"Isn't she _cute?"_ Gir said, making kissing noises at the mop.

"Whatever. I don't have time for this. _Here."_ She impatiently said, grabbing a slice of pizza and handing it to the robot. "Go away and eat this in the kitchen." She quietly told him.

"But LOUISE NEEDS PIZZA TOO! WITH EXTRA PIG!" He excitedly told her.

_"Of course..."_ She responded in a grumpy tone of voice, handing a second slice to Gir to share with the imaginary friend mop.

Gir squealed in delight, shoving some pizza on the mop's 'face'. "Oooh! She angry! I love you, Louise!"

_"Oh brother."_ Gaz complained, having only a limited time to work with. She didn't have time for incoherent babbling. She went to the drawer where the Squeedily Spooch necklace was hidden away, and retrieved it. She opened up the locket in her hands, looking at the photos that lied within.

"Are you gonna try and marry my Master?" Gir suddenly, randomly asked Gaz, giggling.

This question surprised the goth girl, even made her jump. It was the equivalent of a child asking a blunt kind of question, except in this case it was a crazy robot. "No. _Never."_ She firmly stated in an annoyed tone, glaring at him. She then withdrew her stare, reaching into her backpack for a certain piece of paper and a can of white spray paint. Thank God the school was dumb enough to supply it in the art room...

"Are you gonna give him kiss goodnight?" Gir asked, pointing over to a sleeping Zim, who had Cheezos dust on his clothes and blue fun dip on the side of his mouth.

This caused another blush to emerge on her face. "NO!" She angrily shouted...causing Zim's leg to kick. "Now GO AWAY." She demanded.

"Okey dokey!" Gir said, dragging his mop girlfriend back into the kitchen.

With Gir back in the kitchen, Gaz went to work, eyeing the piece of paper she held as she spray painted a symbol of sorts onto the floor, in a circle to be precise, around the couch as Zim slept. When she was done putting the finishing touches on the symbol, she stepped inside the circle, careful as not to ruin the wet paint. She placed the Squeedily Spooch locket on the floor, touching the now complete symbol...

Dib watched his sister draw a vaguely familiar supernatural symbol on the floor, around Zim in particular...

"What is she _doing?!_ Sacrificing his soul to _Satan?!"_ Dib shouted aloud, appalled at his sister's strange turn of behavior. Though it was fun to muse at, Dib knew if such a hellish creature existed, it would want nothing to do with Zim, and would probably exact revenge on Earth for having to deal with the horrible alien's soul.

"HEY! SHUT UP YA CREEP!" Zim's neighbor, an obese woman with a large growth on her forehead, proceeded to scream in annoyance as she sprayed him with water from a gardening hose.

Back in the Base, Gaz had a much different idea in mind. With the spirit trap set, she was just about ready to go. She had read in one of the books about provoking the spirit to enter the circle...otherwise there was a chance they might not show up. An idea sprung to mind, thanks to Gir's _stupid_ comments...Gaz knew in that moment _exactly_ what to do to provoke Azel. Apparently, contacting Zim offended her, but it became _worse_ after the hug..._physical_ contact with Zim set her off. Gaz was rather uncomfortable with emotions, especially letting a softer side slip, and displays of affection. She hesitated, but leaned over him, contemplating it. On one hand, it was an invasion of his personal space. If he woke up, he might flip out. On the other hand, it was the only way known to provoke her, and solve this problem for good.

She lightly flicked the side of his face with her fingers, mostly to see if he was truly asleep and if he was a light sleeper. With no response from the touch, she knew she had a decent chance...

The goth girl forcibly squinted her eyes shut, moving ever closer to the slumbering alien guy. She looked him over, something she was better able to do since he wouldn't notice now. Perhaps she never really noticed before, but though he was lean, he was..._fit._ He had small muscles, to be more precise. A decent torso... His facial features were nice...though his eyes were shut and he was wearing those lame fake lenses, his real eyes were blood red...if she were being honest with herself, they were _badass,_ to be precise. He was _attractive..._

More hesitation set in...she was never comfortable displaying physical affection, in public or anywhere, let alone planting a kiss on someone tenderly while they were sound asleep. She took a brief few seconds to analyze him...his skin was a nice shade of green, seemingly flawless and smooth. But he was so..._different._ She gazed at him, not necessarily seeing him as just an alien, but as a man... She didn't quite understand Azel's jealousy. How she could be considered a threat to her when it was obvious that he was still so loyal to her. Not only that, but she wasn't Zim's type...she's a human. While he admitted to enjoying conversations with her, it didn't mean he wanted to take their association with each other to another level. However, she needed to provoke Azel's spirit into manifesting and coming forth.

She watched him, listening to him lightly hum something in his sleep. Part of her was screaming to hurry up and get it over with, while the other seemed to be screaming don't do it! She knew if she woke him with a kiss he would have a meltdown, probably of _epic germaphobic_ proportions, and she would have a lot of explaining to do. Or she could just hurry up and provoke the spirit into the trap already. It was now or never. She slowly, with much trepidation leaned forward, coming closer to his face...also noticing that he smelled like..._berry fun dip?_ He had blue fun dip on the side of his mouth, and some Cheezos crumbs on the other side of his face...She pursed her lips...touching them lightly to the clean side of his face...now pressing them against his cheek, a lock of her soft purple hair tickled his chin. A warmth emanated from her lips making contact with his smooth green skin, giving him a gentle kiss. Her face felt hot, and fuzziness seemed to build from within her, and it was too much for her in the moment. She then quickly pulled away, in shock that she kissed the side of his face, trying to suppress any feelings for him that arose from it.

"WHAT?! SHE'S _KISSING_ HIM NOW?!" A horrified Dib screamed at the top of his lungs, outraged by his sister's behavior. _WHY DID SHE JUST KISS HIS CHEEK?! How could she be so naive?! _

"STOP LOOKIN' THROUGH THE NEIGHBOR'S WINDOW WITH YOUR FANCY TELESCOPE!" Zim's hillbilly neighbor screamed, getting annoyed with the spying. She especially grew a little disturbed when kissing was mentioned...

"Lady, there are _THINGS_ going on _right now_ in that house that _shouldn't_ be happening! _Unspeakable_ things!" Dib shouted back in an uproar, trying to explain why he was staking out Zim's house. "Take a look!" He told her, shoving the scope near her.

The ignorant woman shoved it back, wanting no part of it. She was quite upset about the ordeal, which she _misinterpreted_, and started to scream. "PEEPIN' TOM! PEEPIN' TOM EVERYONE! PROWLER! PEEPIN' TOM! HE WATCHIN' THE NEIGHBORS _DOIN'_ IT!" She yelled, alerting Zim's other neighbors, most of whom were outside of their houses, watching the situation unfold.

"WAIT! NO! I'M NOT A PROWLER! And they're NOT doing stuff! _Be quiet!"_ He shouted, trying to shut her up and stop making a scene. "That horrible space monster is with my little sister in there!"

"I'mma call the cops!" She forewarned, getting out her phone and dialing the police.

"NO! NO! DON'T CALL THE POLICE! I'M LEAVING!" Dib nervously told the woman, dropping the scope to the ground, as the woman approached him...and started to chase him away, threatening to hit him with a rolling pin. If he received a fine, it would be the third one this month!

As Dib's well meaning spying turned into a disaster, Gaz actually remained unknowing as to what was going on outside...mostly due to Zim soundproofing his Base.

She stood in the same place for a few seconds, contemplating her actions. She...definitely _didn't_ hate it...

At first, Zim made sound, causing her to back off...but his serious demeanor seemed to soften, a smile now slowly unfurled, as he sighed contently.

Gaz was relieved he didn't wake up from her kiss, somewhat nervously wiping some sweat from her brow with her sleeve. She was about to walk away and go back to her corner on the couch, when she was grabbed... However, to her surprise, he grabbed her in his sleep, pulling her close to himself as he subconsciously, _urgently_ wanting her to cuddle with him and get cozy.

She felt Zim's arms wrap around her torso, her eyes popped open in surprise. Her back was held to his chest, his head was now resting on her shoulder, pressed close to her face as he sighed contently.

Her face felt flushed, her cheeks were burning hot as she felt his skin against her face. She tried to slowly break away from him without waking him, but he held her tighter, pressed against himself.

_Great. Just great! If he wakes up while he's holding me he'll have a heart attack!_ She thought to herself, looking for a way out without getting caught. She had work to do, and he was holding her back...literally.

Suddenly, Gir, along with Louise the mop came back into the room.

"OOOH! YOU LOVE MASTER!" Gir screamed joyously, giggling.

Thinking quickly, she grabbed a hold of Louise, as she made a dash out of Zim's arms. Zim was frantically searching for her as he slept, his arms flailing around restlessly. Thinking fast, she took the demented mop and laid it aside of Zim...who found it with his hands, pulling it closer to himself as he seemed to be more at ease with it.

Now free from his grip, she took a few deep breaths, collecting herself, as she felt kind of flustered from the unplanned encounter. She heard the faint sound of police sirens, but didn't think much of it. It wasn't too unusual to hear cop sirens where they lived, and it was nothing she couldn't handle...She looked at the page with the symbol on once more, this time reciting an incantation on the page to supposedly help activate the spirit trap. Once complete, she carefully crawled on the couch, to the opposite side of Zim, laying down. She was exhausted, and the final step was for her to fall asleep, since Azel seemed to operate in the realm of dreams.

She was hoping it could work. Since Azel was appearing in dreams only, and since Zim never slept, it means that she might not of had a method of contacting him. Or if she did, he just wasn't noticing. With Zim finally asleep, Azel would have her chance to communicate with Zim via dreams, and she could give him some closure, perhaps on how she died. And perhaps she could find a way to just move on. Even if she didn't agree with the ghost's methods, Gaz knew in her cold, black heart that Zim _did_ deserve closure.

With that said, Gaz intended to fall asleep at the same time as Zim...as a secondary _part of her plan._ A back up plan, if you will. She, too, would await the spirit to arrive through her dreams as well, if Azel failed to get through to Zim. She planned to confront her, to try to talk to her and get her to move on, without resorting to threats. If Azel would not cooperate with her, at least there would be a decent chance she would be finally caught in the trap. She would be caught and not hiding in the shadows where Gaz couldn't fight her. She could wake up, and use the next step of the spell to try to banish her from her life. At least then she could move on with her own life without a spirit there to constantly antagonize and attack her.

Gaz set her phone's alarm for approximately two hours from the current time. She placed it on the sofa aside of her. It only took a few moments for the goth to drift asleep...For awhile, it was just pitch blackness...nothing but darkness. Then it started...

_ "I'm the most dangerous Irken in existence. I've worked so hard. I've defeated hundreds..." _A female voice darkly stated in a raspy voice from the Beyond.

"What?" Gaz found herself asking, not knowing where she was. An odd feeling of claustrophobia seemed to set in, which was unnatural..since Gaz wasn't the least bit claustrophobic, but she felt surrounded by a presence.

_"You know what this means. Keep on running away."_ Azel's voice snidely commented.

"I don't run away from _anything."_ Gaz angrily clarified through her gritted teeth. "As a matter of fact, I've been _waiting_ for you to finally show up. Why don't you come out of the shadows, Azel?" She said, challenging her.

Then silence...Gaz couldn't see, but she heard whispering surrounding her. Nothing but whispers which she couldn't understand. It was growing louder and more obnoxious. Though she couldn't locate the source, she knew that she was coming closer to her.

"AAAHHHH! OW!" Gaz yelled out, now experiencing some pain jolting through her body. It was _starting_...She grimaced, trying not to scream out anymore, for she thought it to be a weakness. And Gaz was anything but weak. Though Azel had the advantage at the moment, Gaz refused to back down. She would die before she let that happen. She suppressed her groans of pain, everything, all over her body...from feeling her skin being torn, to tendons being sliced and ripped, and her bones experiencing a horrendous, aching pain...Now that the bitch was in close proximity, now was the right time to force herself awake.

_Gaz..._Another female voice called out to the struggling goth girl...

Gaz heard the voice, feeling quite surprised by it. She woke up upon hearing it..._sort of..._

While Gaz was ripped away from the pitch black of her dream, she now found that she was back on the couch...unable to move, trapped in her own body as she could somehow see through her shut eyelids. It was such a creepy feeling, where she felt she had no control over herself. She felt defenseless, and she _hated_ it.

She was lying on her back, and she could see Zim, who was still asleep on the couch, with Gir's mop/girlfriend.

_Zim!_ She tried to call to him for help, except the word couldn't escape her mouth. She felt short of breath, like something heavy lying on her chest, compressing her.

Her eyes darted frantically, looking for a way to fully wake up from what _had_ to be a horrible case of sleep paralysis.

"Gaz!" The second female voice cried out, coming from the left of her. She heard it creaking across the floor, stopping in short of the painted trap.

Gaz knew this voice, she quickly looked to the left...to see a bloody, pale arm extending towards her, which was covered in horrible, painful looking blisters and chemical burns. The skin was falling off of an exposed area of bone, truly sickening. It was a gruesome sight to behold, one that truly scared her as she saw the suffering the spirit had endured in Earthly life...

Meanwhile, outside of the house, the girl's large headed brother had returned to the location. Though Dib had found himself on the run from the police, he would be damned if he left his younger sister alone with Zim for too long. He eventually returned to his previous spot, scoping out the area for nosy neighbors before sitting at his post. He found his scope, and peered through it...seeing Zim asleep, cuddling what looked like a female mop, _kissing it_..._gross_...he looked over, seeing his little sister sleeping on the sofa, seeming to suffer through a night terror of sorts as she thrashed around and seemed to be screaming.

"Whoa! What's _happening?!"_ Dib yelled in a panic to himself as he observed her, ready to spring into action...but before he could, he watched two cables extend from the ceiling and into Zim's Pak, which reawakened the Irken, more or less jolting him awake.

Upon waking, Zim's eyes widened in horror, realizing he was holding and kissing the demented mop creation he gave to Gir. Mortified, he tossed Louise out of the way, his sole focus now on a struggling Gaz Membrane. His mouth hung slightly agape at the immediate sight of the troubled goth girl.

Dib carefully watched as the Irken actually seemed to show signs of concern for her, quickly putting his filthy hands on her arms and trying to wake the tearful sister up from apparently what was a nightmare...

_"MOM?!" _Gaz screamed to herself in a panic, trying to wake up.

Her arm extended closer, reaching out to her. While Gaz had wanted to see her mother, she didn't expect to see her like this. It was a painful reminder of the horrible trauma that her mother experienced in that lab accident all those years ago...The _disturbing, unforgettable_ way that she died...

"MOM!" Gaz anxiously kept trying to physically scream, having no control over her own body...

"MOM! MOM!" Gaz finally screamed out loud, slowly waking up from the all too real nightmare. She felt a few hot tears now streaming down her face, as she thrashed around on the sofa, still deeply disturbed by everything she had just experienced.

"Hey! Hey!" A worried Zim called out to her, gently grabbing a hold of her arms, and trying to bring her attention over to him.

Gaz was fully awake now, sitting up on the couch, as Zim stared at her with a look of confusion, but mostly concern. She looked him in his fake blue eyes for a brief second, before looking away, now realizing she was crying in front of him.

Though she immediately forced herself to suppress any more tears, it was too late. He already saw the tears escape her eyes from when she was sleeping, and he could feel her trembling arms. A mistake she made, involuntarily crying in front of anyone, especially someone like Zim...

"Are you alright? What happened?!" He curiously asked, lightly squeezing her shoulders a bit. He would be lying if he said he wasn't disturbed by her startled reaction. She didn't scare easy, and if she was scared, maybe he should be too. Though he didn't quite understand, a feeling a deep unease sank into his Squeedily Spooch.

Gaz was reluctant to answer, due to what she had just experienced. Her eyes darted all around the sofa. There was no spirit that she noticed in the trap on the floor. Or maybe she just didn't have the ability to see it if it was there...Still, no sign that her plan from the paranormal books had worked.

_"Bad dream."_ She quietly told him in a vague manner, hoping he wouldn't ask for details. Her breath was shaky, quite literally shocked by what she had been reminded of. _Was it really my Mom reaching out to me? Or was it some twisted, deceptive trick by Azel?_

"I heard you scream for your mother…" Zim bravely pointed out, raising a non existent eyebrow, watching a few teardrops glide down her cheek. _It's so unsettling to see her this distraught. _He thought to himself.

At this point, she couldn't have felt more embarrassed. There she was, crying and yelling for her mommy on none other than Invader Zim's couch..._not one of her coolest moments, in her vast opinion_. To make matters more complicated for her, Zim had begun to wipe some of the tears off of her face with a napkin, gently dabbing them until they were erased from her face. A deep blush now consumed her face. She noticed how worried he looked about her, and how he tried to hide it. It was all too much for her at the moment, as so many mixed emotions seemed to stir within her heart.

_"Don't."_ She told him, gently grabbing his gloved hand with the napkin, and pulling it away from her face. She wasn't offended by his touch, however, she was embarrassed by shedding some tears in front of him, and how he basically acknowledged it. She normally had more control than crying in front of others.

Zim backed away, feeling a bit slighted. He understood how she felt though. She didn't want any pity from anyone, much like himself. Yet he couldn't _stand_ to see her in this state, it seemed to cause a disruption within his Squeedily Spooch. Her pain was starting to affect him as well, it made him queasy. Removing the tears from her cheeks would perhaps lessen the impact it had on the both of them. "I-...I'm trying to _assist."_ He explained his actions as best as he could.

"I can get it myself." She tried to tell him, this time in a slightly nicer way, as not to make him feel hurt.

"What caused this?" He asked the girl, choosing to sit closely across from her.

"I saw my Mom in my sleep..." She quietly confessed, looking him in the eye.

At this, Zim looked confused. _Why would she be this upset, especially if she and the mother had a good relationship?_ He pondered. "Shouldn't that have been a _good thing?"_ He inquired, whether it was just a memory or a visitation from the ghost of her mother, it somehow turned pretty traumatic for Gaz instead of being nostalgic.

_"No_...It's not how I thought she should be. I don't know if it was just a bad memory or if her ghost actually came in a dream..." She explained, trying to reason with what had just happened to her.

Zim was reluctant to press for information like this, since Gaz was pretty closed off...but he tried anyway. "What did you _see?"_ He asked.

She decided to avoid the Azel part of the dream, and instead tell him about her mother. "I saw my Mom...but she looked _exactly_ the way she looked when she died...which was the most _horrible_ way someone could ever die..."

"You said she died in a lab accident..." Zim softly remembered aloud. He knew just how deadly lab accidents could be, having witnessed several on planet Vort during his time as a military scientist. It could turn downright ugly.

"Yeah...It was supposedly ruled an accident. An explosion took place in the East wing of Membrane laboratories...she had bruises, cuts, burns, blood, shards of glass..._chemical burns_ all over her. It was so bad me and Dib could barely even _recognize_ her..." Gaz informed him, as she stared off into space, her eyes fighting to contain tears as the horrible memory resurfaced in her mind.

"Dib...witnessed that as well?" Zim curiously asked, as he felt some empathy for him as well.

"Yeah...he remembers...can you do me a favor? Could you take it down a notch on Dib? Take it easy on him?...It's close to the date she died..." She requested. Even though she was mad at her brother at the moment, she knew he had his burdens too.

"Yes...Of course." Zim readily complied, to his own surprise. He was the way he was, but he didn't delight in kicking Dib while he was down...

"Thanks..." She quietly replied, sniffling a bit.

Just hearing the stifled emotion in the goth girl's voice as she started to describe it managed to send chills down the Invader's spine. "That's a _horrible way to die_...I know just how deadly a mishap in a lab can be...I've witnessed several Irkens die in a similar fashion when I worked as a top scientist on Vort...I am very sorry to hear that, Gaz human." Zim told her in sincerity.

Gaz didn't really know how to respond...it was really the first time anyone outside of her family sincerely felt any sorrow for the death of her mother...a woman he didn't even know or meet...She was a little surprised to also find out that he was a scientist. "The thing is, my Mom was the best. Whatever happened in there that day wasn't her fault. She worked there for _years._ She wouldn't just decide to blow herself up one day..._something happened." _She informed him.

"You suspect one of the filthy humans _deliberately_ killed her?" Zim asked, pondering the possibility as to why her mother would have been a potential target.

"Yes..." She quietly said. "Yet another reason I hate most of the people on this planet."

Though Zim didn't have much hope for many of the humans doing anything competent on the planet, he had to ask. "What came of the investigation? Did they-"

_"No._ Not _one thing._ They didn't find _shit_...either they were too stupid or they kept it a secret." The purple haired human bitterly answered, thinking back to the investigation.

Hearing this made Zim feel her pain, he even cringed, for it was all too similar to when he lost Azel, and nothing was ever found out about her through the Irken Army.

Before she could think about it too long, Zim leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her, giving her a much needed hug. It was the only possible remedy for her sorrow at this point. She had allowed him to hug her before, so hopefully this time wouldn't be any different. She seemed to _need_ it.

Gaz accepted his embrace, giving up the urge to resist physical contact with him at the moment, due to invoking Azel's wrath. She carelessly threw her arms around him and brought herself closer to the Irken. She was secretly glad to have someone who cared about her...spirit attachment or not, NOTHING would rip her away from this new bond the two of them were quickly forming. She enjoyed hugging him, and she enjoyed his company, and nothing would ever change that...

Zim held her tighter, his gloved hand accidentally drifted to her upper back, directly in the center, gently caressing it in a circular motion, to Gaz's surprise. While unintentional, it was his way of realizing something seemed to be missing from her being...It was a sort of _concern_ he had about her...He was becoming very _attached_ her...to someone who didn't have a Pak to help keep her safe and increase her chances of survival...The Irken Pak had so many functions, such as permitting quick adaptability to foreign environments, storing memories and caches of information, utilizing weapons, as well as healing the body and broken bones in minutes, increasing longevity, to name a few...And she was without such an incredible life support system. It was a vulnerability he was now very aware of which managed to worry his brilliant mind. He knew Gaz was tough, and could be horrifying, but he perceived this as a potential weakness...a weakness that would make her much more vulnerable to death. And Zim realized in that moment that he never wanted to lose Gaz. _He couldn't._

Gaz felt him touching the center of her upper back, which she thought to be kind of strange, but she was okay with it. While she managed to calm down thanks to his comforting hug, she needed to ask the Invader something important. Perhaps it wasn't completely a lost cause if Azel decided to talk to Zim while he was asleep. "So...I wanted to ask you...did you...have dreams of anything?"

Zim helplessly smiled, chuckling nervously at her question...

_Was it supposed to be funny?_ She impatiently thought to herself, as she noted he suddenly stopped rubbing her upper back.

Zim stalled a second or two before telling her. "I had a most wonderful dream that this _pathetic, filthy_ city crumbled as I watched from a giant hovering pig in space..." He told her, emitting one _vital_ detail from his dream...

"So...nothing important? _No one_ important?" Gaz asked, feeling some disappointment that her plan fell apart.

"..._Nope._ But it was pretty cool! And I feel so rested and I'm able to think much more clearly!" Zim told her, also admitting that she was kinda right about proper rest.

"Hmm..." She hummed as she looked over his shoulder, now somewhat irritated. _Azel apparently didn't even attempt to reach out to him...If she was so concerned about him, why wouldn't she finally take the opportunity to talk to him? Doesn't she even care about how he feels?_

From outside the window, Dib Membrane witnessed the bizarre behavior between his horrible nemesis and younger sister...While initially disturbed by the thought of his sister near that awful lizard, he couldn't deny what he had just witnessed...Gaz was upset, and Zim genuinely seemed to comfort her...from listening to her, to wiping her tears away, and now hugging her...Dib's defenses lowered, if only very briefly...however, he still didn't completely trust him...

As Zim held onto the goth girl, he looked around, noticing the weird foreign scribbles of a maniac painted on his floor. "Gir! You've been painting on the floor again!" He yelled, using his boot to try to chip some of it away, which wasn't working. "That's not the washable paint I bought for you! Great! Now you'll have to use that horrible Poop soda's acid to erase it from the floor!" The neat freak alien yelled into the kitchen at his robot minion, while Gaz just stifled some laughter.

Just like that, the door was abruptly kicked in. Zim and Gaz let go of each other, the insane Invader preparing to fight an intruder...

_"DIB-MONKEY?!_ WHAT ARE _YOU_ DOING HERE?! IT'S MY DAY OFF!" Zim had begun to scream, growing quite agitated that the brother showed up during a close moment with his new human friend.

The large headed guy splashed some soda on himself to put out a small fire on his trench coat caused by Zim's laser blasting lawn gnomes. "I don't know what's going on over here, and I really don't want to know! I'm here to get my sister! Gaz, it's time to go. Your little _'social opportunity'_ is over." He sternly ordered, not really happy with the current situation, yet not overly dramatic about it either.

Nonetheless, his words infuriated Gaz. "Dib, I'm _not_ going. I still didn't get to finish-"

_"No, Gaz!_ I've seen enough of what was going on here!" Dib angrily said, cutting her off abruptly. "I've seen things I won't _ever_ forget!" He snapped.

After hearing this, Gaz's eyes popped open in surprise, while Zim just smugly marched over to him.

"You were _spying_ on me, Dib?! _Really?!"_ Gaz angrily snapped, as she approached her brother in a threatening manner, managing to remind Dib of just how horrific she could be when provoked.

"Well, _somebody_ has to, seeing that your new bestest buddy is _Space Boy! I've seen enough!"_ The older brother pointed out, with much disgust, backing away from her.

"Seen enough of _what,_ Dib? Camaraderie? Video games? Snacks? Foods so delicious your mind cannot even _begin_ to comprehend because all you eat is fried pigs?" The Irken Invader angrily commented, growing impatient that his nemesis barged into his home.

"No. And don't _even_ make me go there. I've been watching the whole time, and I've seen _enough. For starters, _I saw you _making out_ with a mop that looks like an ugly woman!" Dib angrily answered, not exactly thrilled with his findings.

At this, Gaz looked over at Zim, raising an eyebrow. Zim noticed this and panicked, a deep green blush formed on his face.

"LIES! That's _Gir's_ love-pig!" He angrily shouted in defense.

"You were asleep and spooning a freaking mop that you dressed up like a woman!" Dib said, a bit disturbed by it all. Of all the things he had to accuse Zim of, this one took the cake! Dib shook his head in disappointment.

"MORE LIES FROM YOUR DISGUSTING MOUTH?! WHEN WILL THE LIES END?!" Zim dramatically yelled, denying the whole ordeal...while Gaz just lightly snickered, for she was the one that had placed the mop with Zim.

"Whatever. You can keep your _mop-woman_, I really don't care as long as you keep your _dirty_ alien hands off my sister. That's right. I saw you hugging her!" The paranormal investigator forewarned, poking him in the chest.

This infuriated the alien greatly. "No. I _won't_ be keeping away from your sister! And there's _nothing_ you can do to stop me, _Dib-stink!" _He fired back, now in the paranormal investigator's face. "And I didn't know hugging her was a crime!"

"Why? Just why? What do you want with Gaz? Why are you being so nice to her all of a sudden? What _is_ all of this?!" Dib demanded to know. Because to the elder brother, it reminded him of a demented date.

After hearing this, Zim really didn't know how to answer. What was Gaz to him? She was company, but he didn't have the proper word for it. He looked at Dib who _scrutinized_ him, who waited for an answer. "She's my video game _ally!"_ Zim cleverly blurted out, without crossing any lines.

"Whatever! I don't have time for this, Zim! And whatever evil plans you're making, leave Gaz out of it! I refuse to just sit back and let you hurt her!" He warned, grabbing Gaz's arm and trying to lead her out of the Base.

"I would NEVER hurt her!" Zim angrily screamed at the Dib-monkey, who was trying to depart with the scary sister.

"Dib, let go of me NOW!" Gaz darkly commanded, as she was now outside on the doorstep. She ripped her arm away from his grip, now glaring at him.

"GAZ!" Zim yelled, not wanting her to leave his glorious presence so soon. He found himself running to the doorstep, wanting her to come back to him. He held out an outstretched hand to her, _almost_ romantically. "GAZ! I still _need you_ to bludgeon the rest of those zombies with a meat tenderizer!"

"Zim!" She yelled, quickly grabbing his gloved hand...only to find that Dib had wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her back from him.

Zim tried to pull her closer, while Gaz quickly spoke. "Zim, whatever you do, don't take on those zombies by yourself, and make sure that you have a back up of my score on Meat Manglers!" She desperately shouted, worried to death about her video game scores.

"Oh brother! How stupid!" Dib grunted in annoyance, as the two struggled to clasp hands. Dib finally succeeded in pulling his sister out of the alien's grip. She came tumbling down on top of her brother, unintentionally knocking the wind out of him.

While Dib groaned on the ground in pain, Gaz dusted herself off, quite angry with the turn of events. She swung around to punch her brother in the shoulder. "You just don't get it, do you?! It wasn't _just_ about the video games for once! He gets me! He's the only one that does!" She darkly shouted, trying to make a point.

"Really? Is that why you kissed his face? _Yeah, I saw it._ Gaz, I get what it's like to be alone, but _please, please,_ for the love of humanity, find somebody that's NOT him!" Dib pleaded. "And by the way, it was time to come home anyways. Dad's curfew."

"It's not like that...he's like a..._a friend. _He_ helped_ me. _If you were watching, you saw that."_ She told him, her face growing red in embarrassment. "He's friend with a stash of awesome video games that no one can buy on Earth." Yes, she was there for video games of course, but it turned into something more. "And Dad doesn't even care what time it is."

The older brother rolled his eyes, not wanting to think about Zim trying to comfort his sister. It seemed impossible, so the alien had to be scheming. "And what the hell are you doing painting _spirit traps_ on his floor?" Dib demanded to know, raising an eyebrow, well aware of her strange behavior. It was like a red flag to him.

"I don't want to talk about it. You wouldn't even _begin_ to understand..." She darkly said, with her back turned toward him. She winced, as she felt her body still ache from the dream.

"What? Are you _trying_ to _help_ him? If you are, I want _no part_ of it. You're on your _own_ with that one." Dib angrily told her...which only served to further irritate her.

"Fine. I don't _need_ your help anyways! And you're not stopping me from coming back here!" The angry goth girl darkly told him, as she stormed off, headed for home.

As she finally made her way back home, she ran up the stairs, and locked the door to her room. As she changed into her pajamas, she noticed at least three more bruises on her body, as well as a deep cut on her leg...

_That miserable, contrary bitch!_

She groaned in utter frustration, punching the wall...and making a hole as a result. Ironically, while she felt happy for the first time, she also felt furious. The first time she made a friend and the psycho dead girlfriend kept trying to attack her. She couldn't turn to Dib for help, since it had to do with Zim. The goth girl refused to accept defeat, for she doesn't give up...EVER. She had planned on returning to Zim's, and no one would stop her. Not Dib. Not her father. Not anyone from school. Not the Earth, and certainly not a creepy alien bitch. Gaz flopped on her bed, exhausted. But she didn't intend to fall asleep...not right away. She was wondering why her mother had reached out to her...She was wondering why the spirit trap didn't work on Azel...And she was too busy trying to find more solutions from Dib's stupid books, as well as search for some on her phone. Hours passed, and eventually, her human nature had gotten the better of her, as she fell fast asleep...

Her fingers began to_ twitch_, almost _beyond_ her control, as an odd sensation jolted through her hand...

* * *

_Yeah...Gaz may have brought Azel home with her..._

_Next chapter will feature a bit of a time jump, so it doesn't become too monotonous and more details can be revealed._


End file.
